


The Beast Inside

by cyberkiller125



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, I'll start adding some more tags as more chapters are posted, Local hedgehog deals with voice in head, Sonic World Adventure | Sonic Unleashed, Voice in head, unleashed au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2020-05-02 01:52:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 47,145
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19189492
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyberkiller125/pseuds/cyberkiller125
Summary: In a confrontation in space, Sonic ends up falling into a trap by Eggman that allows him to use the power of the chaos emeralds to break open the earth and begin the awakening of a beast known as Dark Gaia. Now Sonic and his friends must go on a journey around the world to put the planet back together and stop the beast from fully awakening.However, Sonic must also deal with a part of the beast that had found its way within him, causing a transformation when the sun goes down, and the entity within is not happy that Sonic is still in control when that happens.





	1. Awakening

**Author's Note:**

> Hello. This is a story I've been planning for quite a while.  
> I can safely say that Sonic Unleashed is my favorite Sonic game. I think it's a combination of some good gameplay (Yes I did like the werehog segments) and the story of the game. I truly think that it's probably going to be awhile before we see anything like Unleashed for a long time in terms of the Sonic franchise.  
> Now I've had the idea of a Unleashed AU on the back of my mind for about a year, but I didn't start developing it until October of last year. So now you get to see what I have been planning during all that time.  
> Also, don't worry about The Metallic Replacement, I will still write chapters for it given the chance.  
> Anyway enjoy the story.

Space is a relativity big place. Almost endless nothingness at every direction. However, above a certain planet right now, it wasn't as empty as it usually was.

Above the Earth, there were various ships grouped together. They were equipped with various cannons, guns, and some that large armies of robots inside them. Inside the ship leading them, Eggman was laughing as he watched his fleet come together. He was confident that nothing could stop this invasion, not even his arch nemesis.

An alarm suddenly went off, notifying him of an explosion at the front of his ship. Looking towards it, he almost couldn't believe his eyes.

Standing in front of the fire, was Sonic The Hedgehog. Even though Eggman was some distance away, he was staring directly at where Eggman was.

Eggman then began to press multiple buttons. At once, the cannons on the ship turned towards where Sonic was, and hundreds of robots were deployed in front of the hedgehog.

"FIRE!" Eggman yelled, pointing at where the hedgehog was.

The cannons then began to fire. Sonic didn't wait for the cannons to hit him, instead running towards where Eggman was, dodging additional cannon fire as he did so. When he reached the robots, he dodged the first robot in front of him and began to bounce back and forth through the smaller robots like a pinball, destroying them in the process.

A bigger robot then charged towards Sonic who dodged it's fist by sliding under it and he quickly made short work of it.

Seeing how badly things were going, Eggman then pressed another button, lowering him into a controllable robot and jumped towards the hedgehog.

He tried to smash him into the ground, but he effortlessly dodged it, landing on the cockpit window of the robot. He gave the doctor a wave as he did so.

"Why you little..." He said attempting to grab Sonic, but the hedgehog leaped off the window and landed behind him.

"Better watch your language Egghead." Sonic taunted as he dodged another swipe from Eggman's robot.

Deciding he was done playing around, Eggman configured the hands of the robot into machine guns and began to fire at Sonic. The hedgehog dodged the gunfire by running up the wall, the gunfire trailing just behind him.

The machine guns eventually overheated and Eggman switched to the missiles. They flew towards Sonic, who spotted a gap he could run through and he sped up, narrowly avoiding the missiles that blew up behind him just as he ran through the gap.

"Oh no you don't." Eggman said as he shifted one of the mech's hands back to normal before he launched the hand through the gap.

Sonic, running through the gap, took a look back and noticed the hand racing towards him.

"Uh oh." He said as he tried to go faster. But just before he was about to do that, the hand grabbed him and he was pulled back through the gap and back towards Eggman.

Eggman brought the hedgehog close to the cockpit, wearing a grin on his face.

"Looks like I got you now you rat." He said.

Sonic simply smirked at that. "You really think so?"

He then closed his eyes, and much to Eggman's surprise, the seven chaos emeralds suddenly appeared around him.

"What?" he quietly said as he used the other mech's hand to try and grab the emeralds.

Just as he covered his hand on them, both hands blew up from a blast of energy, leaving the mech without arms. Sonic was now floating in the air, his fur now yellow, his quills pointed upward, and with red eyes instead of green.

Sonic then charged through the Mech, blowing a hole through it's torso, though leaving the cockpit where Eggman was untouched.

"Time to go." Eggman said in a panic as he pressed a button that detached the Egg-mobile from the mech and flew away from the now super Sonic.

"Oh no you don't." Sonic said as he flew after Eggman. The doctor tried his best to delay the hedgehog by closing numerous doors behind him, but that only bought him about a second as the hedgehog simply smashed through the doors with his super form.

The chase led out into space, with the ship exploding just behind them. As the pursuit continued, the cannons on the other ships tried to fire at Sonic, but he dodged them and destroyed the ships within seconds.

Regardless, Sonic continued to pursue Eggman, who was going away from the fleet and towards a space station that was domed shaped with a cylindrical shaft pointing downwards towards the earth.

Eggman flew into the station as quickly as he could, stopping the Egg-mobile just as he was inside. This caused him lurch against the control panel, opening the windshield of the small craft and he ended up tumbling out of the vehicle.

Mere seconds later, Sonic came bursting out of the floor, stopping just near the ceiling. He looked down at Eggman, smirking over the fact that he had caught his nemesis.

Eggman backed away towards the wall as the hedgehog slowly lowered himself to the ground. "S-Sonic." he stammered in a panic. "I'm sorry."

The hedgehog's feet touched the floor as Eggman continued to plead, cowering on the floor with his knees bent and his head down. "Really l-look, go easy on me. I'll turn over a new leaf I swear, just give me a chance"

Sonic simply smiled and gave a small chuckle. "Heh, well this is new. Showing remorse, Eggman?" he said to Eggman with a hint of sarcasm. He had heard this from him before, and he knew that Eggman would still go back to trying to take over the world at the end of the day. But he was so super-charged with energy that he didn't even care.

He then turned towards one of the windows that showed the now destroyed fleet. "Gotta say though, you weren't exactly subtle with your whole invasion plan. I mean, a fleet this big is gonna get someones attention, and of course announcing it to everyone in the world. I mean, even for you that's a bit obvious."

He turned his head back toward Eggman and smirked. "Of course if you just played nice I wouldn't have to break your toy's." He continued as he wagged his finger towards Eggman.

Unbeknownst to Sonic however, as he was talking, the doctor had gotten a device out. He was also no longer cowering, but rather, slowly getting up with a grin on his face. Letting out a quiet chuckle at his enemy's obliviousness, he pressed the button on the device. "Gotcha."

Suddenly, around the room, hidden compartments began to open up. "What?" Sonic said as his cockiness disappeared as he watched the room begin to transform around him. Rectangular pillars began to surround Sonic in a circle and rods descended from the ceiling, trapping him within the circle. He tried to flee as the components closed in on him, but whenever he got close to the edge, he was hit by blue energy beams that forced back to the center of the circle. Eventually the beams trapped him in the center, causing him to struggle as he tried to break free from them.

'Damn, that blue energy must be neutralizing my super form's power.' Sonic thought as he tried to break free.

He then heard Eggman laughing and he turned his head towards him. The doctor was now rising on a platform, grinning as he watched the hedgehog struggle against his bonds.

"Did you really think I was going to use that fleet as part of my plan?" Eggman asked as this happened. "That was just to get your attention. My actual plan involves the Chaos Emeralds that you have right now."

Sonic continued to struggle against his bonds. "What are you going to do with them?" he yelled back.

"Oh you'll find out soon enough." Eggman replied as he went to a control panel. "But first, I'll need to extract the emeralds from you."

He pressed a button on the panel and immediately, the rods above Sonic began to crackle with purple lightning. He stopped struggling and stared up at the rods in terror. He knew what was about to happen.

Not a second later, the lightning began to direct itself toward him and begun to shock him. He began to scream in pain as he twitched in the air from the electricity. As he did so, he felt the power of the chaos emeralds begin to slip away from him. He tried his best to resist through the pain, but it was no use. Eventually, the emeralds were torn away from him and he was forced back into his normal form and the seven emeralds hovered around him.

As this was happening, Eggman stared with great glee as he flipped a switch on the control panel. Outside the station, the cylindrical shaft began to unfold and expand into a cannon, not to similar to the one on the ark. As it unfolded, it began to charge with purple energy not to similar to the electricity that was electrocuting Sonic now.

Inside the station, Sonic was in complete agony now. Without the protection of the emeralds, he could now feel every shock that the electricity gave him. He screamed as he glared at Eggman through the pain. Through the pain, he could see the colors of the emeralds dull in color.

Eggman meanwhile, was staring at a progress bar on the control panel with great excitement. The progress bar was filling up quickly, going from 50% to 75% within a few seconds.

"Oh I've waited a long time for this." Eggman said as the progress bar neared it's completion.

Outside the station, the cannon finished forming, now brimming with purple energy that was pointed directly at the Earth.

At the same moment, the progress bar reached 100%.

Grinning madly, Eggman raised his hand above him with a finger extended. "FIRE!" he yelled as he slammed his finger down on a big red button.

The cannon fired all the purple energy that it had built up and it hit the earth below. The beam landed in the ocean, causing a massive wave to form and a shockwave that rippled across the land. However, the beam had continued through the water and penetrated itself down to the earths core.

However, that wasn't the only effect the beam had on the planet. Around the world, the crust began to split and crack into pieces, causing earthquakes around the world and magma to spew out from the cracks. Magma wasn't the only thing that was emerging however, as dark purple tentacles emerged along with the magma, pushing and weaving over the pieces of the planets.

Eggman watched all of this, completely in awe of it. He was so absorbed by the sight that he didn't notice what was happening to Sonic. By then, the hedgehog had collapsed onto the floor from the pain of the electricity. However, he was still struggling to get up despite the pain.

However, as he did that, a new feeling suddenly came over him. His insides felt they were shifting inside him and his skin felt itchy.

'What's...happening...to me?' He managed to think through the pain.

Because of the combined pain from the electricity and whatever he was feeling now, he was forced to shut his eyes. As such, he didn't see the changes that were happening to him.

His blur fur began to lengthen and turn a dark blue color, even covering his arms. He then felt the muscles in his arms convulsing, causing him to groan as a result. As his arm began to bulk in muscle, his groan turned into a growl. His gloves began to strain against the growing arm, eventually ripping them apart, revealing a large paw like hand that soon gained black pads on both his palms and fingertips. His fingers curled as his nails became long, black claws, scratching the floor in the process.

Across his body, he felt his bones break and expand as they began to fit his new form better, causing his chest to become broader and his shoulders to square themselves. Meanwhile, fur continued to grow, with his peach spot gaining white fur. The same white fur coated his wrists and his quills also gained them at the ends of his quills.

His tail then began to change. It lengthened and gained a bushy lair of fur that became tipped in the same white fur that was on his chest, wrists, and quills. It began to sway just after it finished growing. The front of his shoes then began to to bubble as his feet felt like they were extending. The front then tore apart, revealing paw like feet with black claws emerging at the end of the toes.

As the hedgehog's transformation occurred, a shadowy form of a beast began to emerge from the planet, grabbing onto two pieces of the now broken planet for support. It's head glowed as it gnashed it's teeth.

At the station, the final changes began to occur with Sonic. His muzzle began to painfully grow longer and his mouth grew wider along with it. He then felt a pain in his teeth as they grew longer and became sharp fangs, his canines becoming the longer ones as the moved past his lip. As this was happening, Sonic felt something building up in his chest wanting to get out. Snarling just before he did so, he lurched forward and let out a giant roar. The lightning ruffling his newly grown fur and illuminating his now open eyes.

At the same time, the beast finally awoke and gave out a roar. The inside of it's maw glowing white.

At the station, the rods that emitted the lightning finally shut off. The now colorless chaos emeralds dropped to the ground and the transformed hedgehog collapsed, letting out several deep breaths of exhaustion.

Eggman however was in complete glee as he looked over the now shattered planet. The planet was now separated in seven pieces, with large purple tentacles latching onto the pieces that seemed to prevent them from drifting off into space.

"Success, a brilliant success." He said with delight. "It's just as the gaia manuscripts foretold. Now all I need to do is harness it's power and Eggmanland will finally come to be."

At that last part, he let out an evil laugh of delight. Suddenly, he heard a low and angry growl.

He stopped laughing and looked down. At first he didn't recognize the creature below. It was trying to get up and stumbled, clearly not used to the new feet. It eventually managed stand in a hunched position and turned it's head, revealing one of it's green eyes. It was at this moment Eggman realized that the creature was Sonic.

"You've really..." He said, his voice now deeper and rougher. "Gone and done it this time Eggman."

For a few seconds, all Eggman do was stare in surprise as some questions raced through his mind. How did this happen? Why was his nemesis now a monsterous beast? Could it have been a side effect of the machine?

He then shook his head, it didn't matter now. The hedgehog has served his purpose and he would need to dispose of him.

"Ah, Sonic." he said regaining his composure. "That's a good look for you. Festive." At that last line, Sonic' anger was briefly replaced with surprise.

"So long friend." Eggman said before he pressed a button and a glass dome went over where he was sitting.

A second later, the window behind Sonic opened up and he was flown through it. He managed to grab onto the edge, but because he was weak from the transformation, he was quickly losing his grip. He tried to use his other arm to grab to grab the edge, but at that moment he lost his grip was flung into space.

He began to fall down to the earth, along with the drained chaos emeralds. As he fell down to the earth, he let out a scream that was heard until he vanished from sight.

Meanwhile, the beast looming over the shattered planet looked up and let out a screech before dissolving, it's essence spreading it's evil around the world.


	2. Crash Landing

Falling from a great height can sometimes be fun. Whether it's skydiving, or bungee jumping, there's something about them that give people a thrill.

Falling from space after you've suffered a humiliating defeat from your nemesis, that wasn't as fun. Just ask Sonic.

Somewhere along the fall, he had lost consciousness and all he could do now was hope he either didn't fall into the ocean or between the pieces of the now broken planet. Of course that didn't matter, as far as he could tell no one could survive a fall from space.

As he fell, the transformed hedgehog began to stir awake and he began to opened his eyes. He expected himself to be staring at the ground as it rapidly approached him before he hit the ground with a splat.

However, right at the moment he fully opened his eyes, a green, transparent sphere suddenly appeared around him. Looking around, he saw that whatever the green sphere was, it seemed to prevent him from falling any further. He also saw the sky was a dark blue color, signifying that it was still night. Looking down, he saw that while he was above a small forest, but still far from the ground.

'Can this sphere please lower me safely to the ground?' He silently asked as he was floated in the sky.

Unfortunately, as quickly as it appeared, the green sphere then vanished, leaving him hovering in the air for a second before he continued his plummet down to earth. He screamed as he fell to the ground and a moment later, the 7 drained chaos emeralds followed.

He then hit the trees, grunting and yelping in pain as he hit the branches that barely slowed down his fall. Some of them even broke from the speed he hit them at. He eventually hit the ground face down, with the broken branches landing on top of him and the chaos emeralds landing shortly after.

For a moment, the hedgehog was motionless. Then he let out a groan as he began to lift himself up, the branches on top of him simply sliding off. Dazed, he began to walk through the forest.

On top of feeling dazed from the impact of the fall, Sonic felt odd. It was like his entire body was foreign. He felt a bit too warm despite the fact that where he was should at least have a mild temperature. His walking felt weird. Like he was being forced to walk on his feet in a different way then he was used too.

He stumbled through the woods for a minute before he nearly fell on his two feet, only stopping himself by grabbing onto a nearby tree.

'What did Eggman do to me?' He thought as he rubbed his eyes with his free hand, which felt larger to him. He recalled the doctor saying something about a new look, but what did he even mean by that?

Shaking his head, he looked up and scanned the area. He had hoped that he didn't land on some deserted island. But right now, he was a bit more distracted by the fact that what should've been a quiet forest seemed to be filled with various sounds, ranging from the sounds of crickets, to the faint sound of the wind. Sonic knew he always had good hearing, but was it always this clear?

He then heard someone humming. Turning his head in the direction of the sound, he found a little girl who looked no more then about 5 picking some flowers, having not noticed Sonic.

" _Ah, that looks like a nice first meal for me._ " A reptilian female voice said.

Sonic froze, he quickly looked around for any sign of the source of the voice.

'Who said that?' he thought. He wasn't thinking that at all, and he was fairly certain the little girl didn't say that.

Shaking his head, he decided to ignore the voice and began to walk over to the little girl.

As he got closer, the little girl began to hear his footsteps. She stopped picking flowers and slowly looked up. What she saw him, she began to gain a look of terror on her face.

Sonic didn't know why she was reacting like that, but he did his best to ignore that for now. "Hi, can you please tell me where I…."

Before he could finish, the girl screamed, causing Sonic to cover his hears and back away slightly. The girl then got up and ran away from him, leaving the flowers behind.

Sonic immediately took notice of a few things. One was his voice, it seemed a bit rougher, almost as if he had a sore throat. Second was his height, normally he was about the same height of little girls, but now he seemed to tower over her. Finally was the little girls scream, it was loud. He expected it do, but it felt like she was screaming right in his ear.

" _What, why didn't you even attempt to eat her?_ " He heard the voice say.

Sonic gave a huff, and once again took a look around. 'And where is that voice coming from?' He thought to himself.

He could still hear the little girl running, so he ran in the direction the girl went. As he ran, he continued to stumble and noticed that he wasn't going as fast as he was used to.

He eventually began to hear a couple of voices. "Susie dear, what's wrong?" one voice, clearly an older man said.

"I saw a monster. He was going to eat me." The other voice said, Sonic realized it was the little girl that ran from him.

'A monster?' Sonic thought quietly to himself. He knew something about his body had changed as he still felt weird, but he couldn't have looked like some monster.

Catching up to the voices he was hearing, Sonic saw the little girl again, now being comforted by her father. Her mother was standing with her arms crossed not far from them.

" _Ah I see you've decided to go for the family instead._ " The voice said again. " _Even better._ "

Sonic gave out a small growl of annoyance. He was already beginning to get annoyed at that voice.

"Steven, look." he heard what looked like the mothers voice say.

Sonic looked up and saw that the family was staring at him. The little girl was hugging her father even harder as she looked at him.

"There it is." The little girl said in terror. "There's the monster I was talking about."

For a few seconds, neither of them moved, not knowing what the other was going to do. The father then picked up the little girl and turned to his wife.

"Anne, we're going back into town." He said. "We need to notify people about a dangerous animal in this area."

The family then began to run away from Sonic and he reached his hand out as they ran from him.

"Wait!" He cried out. "I'm not a monster, I was just…."

He froze when he saw his hand.

Shakily bringing it closer to him, he saw that his hand was now larger, ungloved, with black pads on his palm and fingertips, and long black claws. He looked at his other hand and saw that it was similar.

Rapidly breathing in terror, he looked down and saw that his feet had changed. The front of his shoes had torn apart, revealing paw like feet with similar black claws from his toes.

Stumbling backwards in surprise, he tripped and landed on his newly extended tail, which he felt. Looking back, he saw it wagging against the ground, which freaked him out more.

"Wha..What the hell did Eggman do to me?" Sonic cried out as he looked over himself.

Once again, the voice made itself known. " _Why didn't you attack that family? They were right there._ "

Sonic rubbed his forehead with his now larger hand, trying his best to ignore the voice. Instead he tried to remember the events in between beginning to get electrocuted on Eggman's station and landing on the planet. Everything had happened so fast that it was a blur at him.

He began to recall seeing the Chaos Emeralds begin to drain, and Eggman pressing a button on the control panel as he was getting electrocuted. He then remembered that some time after Eggman pressed the button he was in a lot of pain, after it had subsided he saw the broken planet from the window, and then Eggman ejected him out of the station.

'Okay so Eggman used that device to drain the chaos emeralds, break the planet, and somewhere along the way, I turned into this thing.' Sonic thought, piecing together what he recalled.

He then realized something. Eggman was most likely counting on following him to that space station, as well as him being so powered up in his super form that he wouldn't notice the trap.

And he was foolish enough to fall for it.

"I...I caused all of this." Sonic quietly said.

He looked at his transformed hand. This was the price he had to pay for his own arrogance, looking like a monster. Like it or not, he was responsible for what happened.

'Stop telling yourself that.' He told himself. 'You might have fallen for the trap, but Eggman was the one who pushed the button, not you.'

Sonic sighed, got back up and began to walk back towards where he landed. Hundreds of questions were racing through his mind as he did so. Was this transformation permanent? What were the Gaia Manuscripts that Eggman refereed too? Most importantly though, how was he going to fix this?

He made it back to where he landed and picked up one of the chaos emeralds. He looked at it's drained form sadly. The emerald was once full of color and energy. Now it was almost colorless and dull.

'Knuckles is gonna kill me for this.' Sonic thought to himself as he put the emerald away.

Just as he was about to pick up the next emerald however, he noticed something.

Not far from the emeralds was a strange creature that was lying unconscious. It was small and covered with red fur, with white fur on his hands, feet, muzzle, and a small tuft of it on it's head. It had a bunny like tail, with green fly-like wings on it's back. On it's neck was what looked like a collar with a green gem.

_"I guess this will have to do as a snack._ " The voice said with some disappointment.

Sonic shook his head as he ignored the voice once again. Walking over to the unconscious creature, picking it up by the tail and bringing it to his eyes.

"Hey, you okay." He asked as he gently poked it with his claws, not wanting to injure the creature any further.

" _NO! DON'T HELP IT, EAT IT!_ " The voice yelled in frustration.

Sonic briefly clenched his fist in frustration before he once again poked the creature. This time he got a response from it.

"Can't….eat….another bite." It muttered.

For a moment, Sonic was bewildered by the response. But he quickly became frustrated again over the voice screaming at him to eat the creature and began to shake the creature.

"Pull yourself together!" He said.

That seemed to wake the creature up. As it blinked it's eyes, the creature was unaware that it was upside down at first, but it soon became aware something was wrong as he found himself staring at grass. Looking down, he saw pawed feet with black claws at the end.

Trailing his eyes upwards, he soon found himself looking at a face; a face that belong to a monster with fangs.

Panicking, the creature quickly punched Sonic in the nose, causing him to drop him and he ran and hid behind a rock nearby. Sonic rubbed his nose, thankfully the punch wasn't strong enough to cause a nose bleed, but it still hurt.

" _I don't understand, why won't you do as I say? I'm supposed to control your actions and yet you're doing the opposite of what I tell you to do._ "

Sonic was finally fed up with the voice. "ALRIGHT, ENOUGH OF THIS. WHERE ARE YOU?!" He yelled.

There was a pause for a moment before the voice responded. " _You can hear me?_ " It asked with surprise.

"Yes, I can. Now show yourself." Sonic replied looking around.

" _How can I even show myself?_ " The voice replied. " _I'm inside your head._ "

Sonic froze. "What?"

" _Yes, I am inside your head. But you're not even supposed to be aware of me, much less still be in control._ "

"What do you mean? You seem to be willing talk to me now that I'm aware of you."

" _You're supposed to be nothing more then a puppet for my master._ "

"Your master?"

As Sonic and the voice argued, the creature peeked out from behind the rock, curious over what was going on.

He saw that the monster seemed to be arguing at nothing. After saying something at apparently no one, there would be a pause before he yelled at whoever he was talking to.

The creature realized it had a chance to escape while the monster was distracted. As he was stepping back, his foot kicked against a small pebble.

Sonic heard the pebble roll against the ground and turned towards the rock the creature was hiding behind. The moment he took a step forward, the creature hid back behind the rock.

"Don't eat me." The creature said. "I...I taste bad."

Sonic stayed where he was. He knew that he had to convince the creature that he meant no harm, but his new appearance didn't appear to be helping. He knew he had to try something else.

"You okay?" He asked, trying to sound as gentle as possible with his voice. "Nothing broken?"

The creature, hearing his voice, peeked out of the rock and saw that the monster was standing there, his hands on his hips, and waiting for an answer. For a few moments, he didn't know whether to come out from behind the rock or not. It could possibly be a trap for the monster to lure him out and eat him.

However, as he stared at the creatures eyes, he began to realize that the monster didn't mean any harm to him. It's just his appearance made him look scary.

"Oh, I'm just fine." The creature replied coming out of the rock and using his wings to fly closer to Sonic. "Thanks for asking, Mister Monster Guy."

At first, Sonic was taken aback by that statement, but then he remembered his appearance. He sadly looked down at his changed hands. "Do I really look like a monster?" He asked.

"Yeah, with those teeth and those claws." The creature said as he flew around him. Sonic knew about the obvious changes, but he couldn't see the changes to his face. Eggman's station didn't have mirrors after all. Rubbing his hands over his muzzle, he realized it was longer and he could feel the presence of fangs outside of his mouth.

The creature stopped flying around and hovered in front of Sonic' face. "What's your name anyway?" he asked.

'That's more like it.' Sonic thought. He did his best to stand up straight with his new feet, gave his thumbs up, and gave a grin, which probably looked terrifying to the creature.

"I'm Sonic, Sonic The Hedgehog." He said to the creature.

" _You certainly don't look like a hedgehog._ " The voice replied.

"I'm still myself no matter what I look like. So please be quiet." Sonic said under his breath.

"What did you say?" The creature asked.

"Nothing." Sonic replied. "What's your name anyway?"

"Oh, I'm..." The creature began before stopping himself. "I'm…"

The creature began to think, scratching his head as he continued to mutter. "My name is..."

His eyes widened in terror. "What is my name?" he asked out loud before he began to fly around in panic. "Ahhhh, I can't remember."

Sonic became surprised. "What, you forgot who you are?"

"It's worse then that." The creature replied. "I don't remember anything."

Sonic looked around the area, trying to figure out something that might jog the creatures memory. Looking at the small crater he created when he landed, something came to mind. "Do you remember anything falling on you?" he asked the creature.

The creature thought about it. "Well, I remember something falling from the sky." He said, miming falling to the ground as he did. "Then nothing, I don't remember anything. Next thing I knew…."

Sonic didn't hear the rest of what the creature said after that. He was instead replaying the moment he fell in his mind, this time, with the creature added to the situation. As he remembered it, a horrible realization began to cross his mind.

'Please don't tell me I fell on him.' He silently thought.

" _You were the only one in the area, of course you're the one who fell on him._ " The voice said.

"Not. Helping." Sonic said through gritted teeth. It was bad enough that he accidentally broke the planet apart, now he was possibly responsible for giving someone amnesia.

Turning back to the creature, he saw the creature flying around in panic.

"What am I going to do now?" He asked. "What can I do? How can I..."

He then began to feel a bit dizzy. "Oof, I'm hungry."

The creature began to fall to the ground, but Sonic managed to catch him with his hand.

"Hey don't worry." He said to the creature. "I'll help get your memory back."

The creature, who was sad over his situation a few seconds ago, looked up in surprise at him. "Really?" he asked.

Sonic gave a small nod with a smile, trying his best not to show much of his fangs. "Absolutely." He replied. Overjoyed, the creature leaped onto his head, which felt a bit odd for Sonic. But he felt it was his responsibility to help the creature after possibly causing his predicament. "I'm sure we can find someone who knows who you are."

The creature's head then peeked into his vision and jumped off his head. "Oh boy, you're the best Mister Monster- I mean Sonic The Hedgehog." he said cheerfully.

The two then shared a high five and a small laugh. Afterwards, Sonic picked up the rest of the chaos emeralds and the two began to walk through the forest. All the while, the creature flew around, repeating "I'm gonna get my memory back."

As they went through the forest, Sonic couldn't help but give a small smile. He might have changed physically, but he was still the same person despite that.

By the time they left the forest and entered an open field, the sun was beginning to rise. As Sonic was appreciating the sight, he suddenly felt a tug at his chest. He collapsed on the ground as he began to change again.

The creature watched in surprise as Sonic's fur shorted and turned back into it's normal color, his hands and arms decreased in bulk as the claws retracted back into his fingers, the tail decreased in length until it was it's normal length, his fangs went back into his mouth, and his feet went back to normal.

Sonic got up, not knowing what happened at first, but then he noticed that his hand had returned to normal. It wasn't gloved obviously but it was back to how it normally looked. He looked himself over and saw that his while the front of his shoes were still ruined, his feet looked like they would fit his shoes if they were whole.

"Woah." The creature said as he looked himself over. "That was amazing."

Once Sonic was sure everything on him was back to normal, he stared in the distance. So many questions were going through his mind right now, most of them he didn't have an answer for.

" _This is not over._ " He heard the voice say. " _Soon my master will cover the world in darkness, and not even the sun will protect you._ "

Sonic shook his head. He was going to find a way to fix this. He didn't know how just yet, but he knew that with some help, he would find a solution to this.

He turned back towards the creature. "Come on, there should be a town nearby."

He then looked down at his feet and observed his ruined shoes. 'Hope I can still run in these.' he thought.

* * *

 

Meanwhile, somewhere else in the world, Tails was cleaning up the mess the earthquake had caused in his workshop.

The earthquake had completely caught him off guard. Despite the fact that there were no fault lines near where he was, he felt it from here. Luckily, Tails knew what to do in case of an earthquake, so he hid under a nearby table until the shaking had stopped.

Once that had stopped, he slowly got out from under the table, staying near it in case any aftershocks happened.

While most of the benches in the workshop remained where they were thanks to being bolted to the floor, what was on the benches weren't so lucky. Papers were scattered everywhere, a few monitors were face down on the floor, and various bits of small machinery were either broken or lying on the floor.

Tails sighed at the sight. It was clear this was going to take awhile to clean up the workshop. He also knew that this was just the workshop, he didn't know the damage for the rest of the house. But he went to work with cleaning up the workshop.

As he was using a broom to brush away the broken glass, he wondered what had happened to Sonic. When they had heard the reports of Eggman's fleet in space, Sonic immediately ran off to stop him, bringing the chaos emeralds with him. Once the earthquake had stopped, Tails had tried to contact Sonic, but he wouldn't answer.

It was probably around daytime now, Sonic still hadn't contacted him, and Tails was beginning to get concerned. He didn't know whether Sonic ended up getting captured, or killed in his encounter with Eggman.

'I hope it's not the latter.' Tails thought as he dumped the glass into the trash.

Just then, he heard a knock on the front door and froze. For a moment, he hoped it was Sonic at the door. Until the knocking returned and the visitor spoke.

"Tails? Tails are you there?"

Tails sighed in half disappointment. It wasn't who he was expecting, but it was still someone he knew.

Putting the broom and dustpan down, he exited the workshop, navigating through the mess the earthquake had caused to the house.

All the while, the knocking continued until Tails reached the door. Opening it, he came face to face with a red echidna, who didn't look happy.

"Hello Knuckles." Tails said.

"Hello Tails." Knuckles replied. "Is Sonic here?"

"No, care to come in?"

Knuckles went inside, with Tails stepping aside. Once he was inside, he looked around at the mess in Tails' house.

"What happened here?" Knuckles asked.

"Earthquake." Tails explained as he did his best to put up and straighten some picture frames. "Haven't had a chance to fully clean up."

He turned to Knuckles. "What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be guarding the Master Emerald?"

"Well it's hard to do that when the Master Emerald is drained of it's energy." Knuckles answered in frustration.

Tails stopped and turned his head towards Knuckles with a look of surprise. "What did you say?"

Knuckles gave an annoyed look. "I said the Master Emerald was drained of energy" He repeated in a frustrated tone. "And when that happens, Angel Island crashes back onto the planet, and I can't just collect the shards again because…."

"Okay, calm down." Tails said approaching him. "Just have a seat, and explain what happened to me."

Knuckles stared at him for a moment before he went into the living room and sat on the couch. Tails followed suit, sitting in a chair that was on the across from the couch. The living room wasn't in as big of a mess as the workshop, but there were still loose objects that littered the floor because of the earthquake.

Knuckles took a few deep breaths before he began. "Okay, I was on Angel Island, guarding the Master Emerald like I usually do. Then, I saw this purple beam come down from the sky."

"Was it anywhere near Angel Island?" Tails asked.

"No, but it was far enough for me to see it." Knuckles replied. "After awhile it vanished and the whole island began to shake. I looked at the Master Emerald because to see if something hand happened to it."

"And you saw the emerald drained of it's energy." Tails finished.

"Yes, it was now a grayish color. Anyway the island crashed back into the Earth, and I suspected something happened to the Chaos Emeralds."

"What do you suppose happened to them?" Tails asked.

"Best guess is that they've lost their power." Knuckles answered. "It's why I'm here, you were the last one that had them."

Tails looked away for a moment. "Actually, I don't have them right now."

Knuckles looked at him in surprise. "What, then who has them now?"

Tails thought about it. "Well, Sonic took them when he went to face Eggman. I've been trying to contact him, but I haven't….."

He stopped when he realized what he was saying. "Oh no."

"What?" Knuckles asked.

"Sonic has the emeralds, and I don't know where he is right now." Tails explained.

"Has he contacted you?"

"No. I've also tried to contact him myself, but he's not answering."

"Well you better contact him quick." Knuckles demanded. "Because the sooner we find out what happened to the emeralds, the better."

Tails gave him a slightly annoyed look in response. "Look, I'll try to contact him every hour, and when he finally answers and tells us where he is, we'll go there as soon as possible."

Tails then looked around. "In the meantime, you can help me clean up my house."

Knuckles looked around the house and shrugged. "I guess you do need some assistance with some things."

As Knuckles began to help clean up the house, Tails went back to his workshop, picked up a yellow tablet like device from off one of the workbenches, and tried to call Sonic.

After about a minute, he was notified the call had failed.

'Please be alright Sonic.' Tails thought.


	3. Naming's

Sonic and the creature slowed down just at the edge of a town. The run there was rather short thanks to Sonic's speed. He was going so fast that the creature just barely managed to trail behind him.

"That's better." Sonic said as he stretched his arms behind his back as he and the creature entered the town. "Felt like I needed that after everything that's happened recently."

"Wow." The creature said catching his breath as he flew next to Sonic. "You are really fast."

Sonic turned to the creature and grinned. "It's what I'm known for."

As he walked into town, Sonic stared at his ruined shoes. If there was anything he learned from that run is that he should never run with half of his shoe missing. Throughout the run, he had to endure getting small cuts on his feet, nearly tripping on the ground thanks to only wearing half a shoe, and getting his feet dirty.

'If I find a place that sells shoes in this town, the first thing I'm gonna do is get a new pair.' Sonic thought to himself.

Sonic then brought out two of the Chaos Emeralds and began juggling them with one hand. He knew he had to still figure out how he was going to fix the emeralds, but there was something else on his mind.

"What do you suppose that was all about?" He thought aloud. "The hair, the claws, the teeth. What exactly happened to me back there?"

The creature then turned towards Sonic, positioning himself in a way that made it look like he was flying on his side. "So is this what you normally look like?" he asked.

Sonic smiled. "Yeah, this is the real me." He said. "Pretty cool huh?"

He turned to the creature, but to his surprise, he was gone.

"Wha?" Sonic exclaimed as he turned his head looking for the creature.

'Where did he go?' He thought.

He ran into town a bit further to look for him. Luckily, he didn't need to run for very long and quickly found the creature in front of an ice cream vendor.

He was staring at the ice cream that was displayed with great interest. Behind the vendor, the owner, a large man with a dark mustache, watched with amusement.

"Looks good huh?" The man said. "This chocolate chip sundae supreme is the pride of the city."

"Chocolate chip…sundae supreme." The creature said as if he was hypnotized by the treat.

"HEY!" Sonic cried out, trying to get the creatures attention. "WHAT ABOUT YOUR MEMORIES?"

" _Leave him._ " He heard the voice say. " _You have no use for him._ "

Sonic rubbed his forehead at that. 'You're still here?' He thought with annoyance.

He had hoped that the voice was just some side effect of hitting his head on the ground. Something that would wear off quickly, and he would go about his way.

Unfortunately, it seemed that after his run to the town in relative silence. It seemed that the voice he was hearing wasn't going anywhere.

He turned back towards the creature, who was now trying to reach towards the ice cream treat. With the man playfully holding it away from him.

"Oh ho ho. I see you like it" The ice cream man laughed. "Well if you don't like it, you can have your money back."

"Oh I love it." The creature cried out.

"HEY!" Sonic yelled, trying one last time to get the creature's attention back to him.

" _I told you, leave him._ " The voice said.

Sonic sighed, and then he walked to the vendor and approached the ice cream vendor.

"Excuse me." He said to the man.

The ice cream man turned to him. "Why hello there." He said. "Are you interested in the treat too?"

Sonic gave a smile. "Why yes. One for me and one for my friend here." He said pointing to the creature.

The man smiled. "Alright, two Chocolate Chip Sundae Supreme's coming up." He said.

As the man went to work making the ice cream, Sonic decided to ask him a question.

"Forgive me for asking, but where exactly am I?" Sonic asked.

The man looked at him and gave a small chuckle. "Did you fall out of the sky or something? This is Apotos." He answered.

Ignoring the poor choice of words in the first part of the answer, Sonic smiled. "Thanks." He said.

The man then handed them two ice cream cones. "Here you go. Enjoy your day."

Sonic grabbed the cones, giving one to the creature, who began to eat the ice cream. Sonic made sure to pay the vendor before they left.

As they walked away from the vendor, Sonic thought about his current situation.

'Okay, Apotos is on a map, so it's not exactly a desert island.' He thought. 'I just need to contact Tails and we can figure out the situation and what we can do together.'

" _If you think you can do anything_ _about my master_ _._ _Then y_ _ou are_ _more foolish then I thought_ _._ " The voice said.

'Can you please stop reading my thoughts?' Sonic thought with annoyance.

He turned to the creature. He seemed to be enjoying the ice cream, with bits of it around the sides of his mouth. He was already taking another bite of it.

"Mmmm." The creature said as he licked the ice cream from his lips. "This chip whatever stuff is great."

Sonic gave a small chuckle. "If you say so." He said. "But how about you give me a hand and help me find someone who knows you Chip."

The creature stopped and looked at Sonic, confused. "Chip, who's that?"

Sonic turned to the creature. "You, obviously. I gotta call you something, right?"

" _You're naming him?!_ " The voice asked in anger. " _What is he, your pet now?"_

Sonic did his best to ignore the voice. "So what do you think of that name?"

"Chip." The creature said as he thought about the name, repeating it a couple of times before smiling. "Yeah, that sounds good to me. Yummy!"

Sonic gave a small laugh. "Okay Chip, Let's take a look around town to find out who you are." Sonic said.

They began to walk around the town, asking anyone they came across about Chip. They all got the same or similar responses however.

"No, I've never seen him before."

"I don't know him, but he's cute."

"He's adorable, but this is my first time seeing him. So, no I don't know him."

"This creature? Never met him before in my life."

During all this, Sonic spotted a vendor that sold shoes and gloves. Taking a brief detour from what they were doing, Sonic got himself a new pair of gloves and shoes, tossing the torn pair in the trash. The shoes he got were similar to the ones he usually wore and fit just fine, but he did note to tell Tails to bring a spare pair when he contacted him.

After about an hour of traveling around the town, they were no closer to finding out who Chip was. So they decided to take a break and appreciate the ocean view.

'Well, even if this was a desert island.' Sonic thought as he stared out into the seemingly endless distance. 'This is a nice view.'

" _Enjoy it while it lasts._ " The voice said. " _Because my master will cover the world in darkness._ "

Sonic shook his head has he put his hand on his forehead. He really needed to figure out what was causing the voice in his head. He figured that monster form was past him, probably just a temporary effect of Eggmans trap. Maybe once he met up with Tails, he could ask him to analyze him to figure out what was happening to him.

The thought of Tails made him realize something. He probably had no idea where he was, since the last time he saw him was right before he went into space to confront Eggman. And judging from what he saw of the planet when he was on Eggman's station, probably had no idea what had happened.

"Chip." Sonic said turning to him.

"Yes Sonic?" Chip asked.

"Can you stay here for a moment?" Sonic asked. "I need to do something alone."

Chip tilted his head. "Why's that?" he asked.

"Well, I have a few friends that I need to contact." Sonic explained.

Chips eyes widened. "You have more friends?"

"Yes." Sonic answered. "But they're not exactly around at the moment. So I need to call them so they can come here."

"But why don't you want me around when you call them? Don't you want me to meet your other friends?"

"Well..." Sonic said, looking away from Chip for a moment. "I do, but I sort of need to discuss some things with them alone right now."

"What kind of things?"

"Look just stay here. It should take a few minutes." Sonic said. "Understand?"

Chip nodded. "Understood, I will stay here until you come back."

Sonic smiled. "Good."

Sonic then walked away from Chip and found a place that was quiet enough to hear Tails when he would contact him.

He raised his left wrist towards his face, but before he could do anything, he froze upon seeing it.

Normally, just above the cuff of his glove, there would be a watch like device that he could use to communicate with Tails whenever they were apart.

Now however, the watch was nowhere to be seen. It didn't take long for Sonic to figure out that he had lost it when he was on Eggman's station when he turned into that beast.

"Dammit." Sonic said, slapping his forehead in frustration. "Now how am I going to contact Tails?"

He just then remembered something. Kneeling down, he began to dig for something inside the cuff of his sock. After a few seconds, he felt something in there. After a few more seconds, he managed to remove it from his sock.

Looking at it, he sighed in relief. The device looked like a simple gray watch, but instead of a clock, there was a speaker and a button. Tails had told Sonic that in the case that he lost his communicator, he should always have another one as a backup. Sonic had found that idea ridiculous, as he was sure he wouldn't lose the main one, but took one just in case.

Thinking about it now, he was glad that he took Tails' advice.

He pressed the button and waited a few seconds before a voice came through.

"Hello, is someone there?"

"Hi Tails." Sonic said.

"Sonic." Tails' voice was mixed with both surprise and relief. "I've been trying to contact you for hours. Are you alright?"

Sonic gave a slight smile. "Is that a trick question Tails? Of course I'm alright."

" _You're not alright._ " The voice said.

"Please be quiet." Sonic muttered.

"Well that's a relief." Tails said. "Because after those earthquakes I was worried something happened to you when you went to fight Eggman."

Sonic's face fell slightly. "Yeah Tails, about those earthquakes."

"What is it?"

"Well..." Sonic said trying to think of a way to explain what had happened in his confrontation with Eggman. "Eggman was responsible for them."

" _No he wasn't. You helped cause it too._ " The voice said.

"Shut up!" Sonic cried out.

"What did you say Sonic?" Tails asked.

Sonic froze. He realized that Tails couldn't hear the voice. He figured he was the only one who could hear it as no one else around him seemed to react to it whenever it spoke. So from Tails' perspective, he just yelled at nothing for no reason.

"Uh.." Sonic said trying to figure out what to say so Tails wouldn't get suspicious. "There was a nearby pedestrian that was being too loud."

"Really?" Tails asked, clearly confused. "I didn't hear anything."

"Well he was kind of speaking over you." Sonic said, trying to convince Tails of his lie.

"Oh." Tails said, though Sonic could tell he was suspicious. "Back to Eggman, he was the one responsible?"

"Yeah. That whole space fleet was just to lure me out and fall into his trap." Sonic explained. "And you're probably not going to believe what he did."

"What did he do?" Tails asked.

Sonic sighed. "He broke the planet apart."

" _And released my master._ " The voice added.

Sonic sighed and rubbed his head, trying his best to put up with the voice.

"What?" Tails asked, clearly surprised. "How did he even do that?"

"He used the Chaos Emeralds to do it." Sonic explained. "He used them to power a laser that broke the planet apart."

"Why did he do that?" Tails asked

Sonic rubbed his head. "I don't really remember much because I was too busy being shocked by his trap, but he mentioned something called the Gaia Manuscripts."

"Gaia Manuscripts? That sounds familiar." Tails said.

"You know something about them?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know much about them, but I know someone who's familiar with them." Tails explained.

"Really, who is he?" Sonic asked.

Just then, another voice came on from the other end. "Sonic, is that you speaking?"

Sonic' eyes widened in surprise. "Knuckles, you're here too?"

"Yeah, I went to Tails because the Master Emerald lost power." Knuckles explained. "Do you know what happened to the Chaos Emeralds?"

Sonic suddenly felt nervous. Getting out one of the Chaos Emeralds, he stared at it, not sure of what to say. He knew that if he told Knuckles what happened to the emeralds, there was no doubt he was be angry at him.

"Uh, the emeralds are fine." Sonic said, nervously smiling. "No need to worry about them."

There was a pause. Despite not being there, Sonic could just see Knuckles staring at him, not convinced of his claim.

"Soinc, I know you're lying about the Chaos Emeralds." Knuckles said.

" _He's right, you're the one responsible for their current state._ " The voice said.

Sonic clenched his fist in frustration. "Quiet." He said through gritted teeth.

"What was that Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"Just the noisy pedestrian I told Tails about again." Sonic said quickly. "But you're right Knuckles, something happened to the emeralds. But I have all seven of them, so they're not in Eggman's hands."

"That's a relief." Knuckles said. "Can you tell me what happened."

Sonic looked at the drained Emerald. "Uh, how about you and Tails meet up with me, so I can show you what happened to them. That way we can figure out what to do together."

"That sounds like a good idea." Tails said. "Just tell us where you are and we'll be there as soon as possible."

"I'm at Apotos." Sonic answered.

"Apotos?" Tails repeated. "Let me see where that is."

There was a few seconds of silence as Tails searched for the location that Sonic was at.

"Okay, I'm picking up your transmitter exactly at Apotos." Tails answered.

Sonic smiled. "Okay, see you soon. Oh, and could you bring a spare pair of shoes for me Tails?"

"Uh, sure." Tails said, a bit confused by the request. "One more thing, Sonic."

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"How did you escape from Eggman?"

Sonic's smile faded a bit. For a moment, Sonic didn't know what to say.

He didn't know whether to talk about that monster he turned into on Eggmans station, how Eggman thew him and the Chaos Emeralds out into place and left him to fall down to the planet, the voice inside his head, and how he met Chip and the possibility that he might be responsible for his amnesia.

Sonic sighed, he felt guilty about lying to his friends, but it was probably for the best for now.

"The moment I broke out of his trap, I took an escape pod and landed in Apotos." He said.

"Oh." Tails said. "Must've been exciting for you."

Sonic gave a small nod. "It was."

" _That is not what happened. You fell into the trap and that doctor launched you into space._ " The voice said.

"WILL YOU PLEASE JUST SHUT UP!" Sonic yelled, finally fed up with the voice's interruptions.

There was a long silence from both Tails and Knuckles as Sonic tried to calm himself down.

"Sonic, are you sure you're alright?" Knuckles asked. "Is it that loud pedestrian again?"

Sonic couldn't even bother giving him an answer to the latter question. "I'm fine, just meet me in Apotos, okay." Sonic said in frustration.

"Sonic, I agree with Knu..." Tails began

Sonic pressed the button again, cutting off Tails. He hated doing that, but he was so frustrated that he barely cared.

"You need to be quiet when I'm talking to others." Sonic said to the voice. He no doubt sounded crazy from the perspective of others. "I can't always convince everyone that you're a noisy pedestrian."

" _Why would I do that?_ " The voice asked. " _That was the most entertainment I've had since I found out I couldn't control you._ "

Sonic groaned and rubbed his forehead. "Did you even listen to how my friends reacted? To them, it sounded like I was going crazy."

" _And how would that be bad?"_

Sonic sighed. It was clear that the voice wasn't going to follow anything he said. From it's perspective, he was supposed to be a puppet for it's master. Whatever that meant.

"You know." Sonic began as he stroked his chin. "When I first talked to you; you said you were someones master."

" _That is correct, and you were supposed to be my puppet._ " The voice answered.

"Does you master have a name?" Sonic asked.

" _Yes."_

"Do you mind telling me it?"

Sonic heard the voice sigh. " _I am a piece of the beast known as Dark Gaia._ " It responded.

There was silence as Sonic thought about the voice's answer. He was curious of the last part and wondered if it had anything to do with the Gaia Manuscripts. Especially considering the last part of the name the voice gave.

"So, just to clarify, you're a part of this Dark Gaia creature right?" Sonic said.

" _Correct, and you will refer to me as such._ " The voice answered.

"Can I just call you Dark?" Sonic asked. "Because that seems like a lot to say if I begin to talk to you, or if I tell anyone else about this."

" _NO!_ " The voice yelled in frustration. " _YOU WILL NOT NAME ME LIKE THAT CREATURE!_ _YOU WILL REFER TO ME AS DARK GAIA!_ "

Sonic gave a small smirk. "Actually, I think Dar might be better."

" _REFER TO ME AS DARK GAIA!"_  The voice yelled. " _I DEMAND IT._ "

"Whatever you say Dar." Sonic said.

" _I'm really beginning to hate you."_ Dar said in quiet anger.

"SONIC, HELP!" Chip's voice suddenly cried out.

Sonic turned in the direction the voice came from in surprise.

" _Please leave him to die._ " Dar said.

"Not a chance Dar." Sonic said.

" _Stop calling me that._ "

Sonic quickly ran out of the alley and saw Chip was surrounded by three robots. They were trying to grab him, but Chip kept flying out of their reach just before they did so. But Sonic could tell that he couldn't do this forever as he could see Chip becoming exhausted.

Sonic charged at the robots, spin dashing straight into one causing it to fall onto it's back. Sonic then used the fallen robot to leap towards another robot before giving it a kick, causing the robot to fall over the railing and into the water below. Finally he used his homing attack to destroy the final robot.

He turned to Chip. "You alright?" he asked.

Chip nodded as he began to explain what happened. "I was simply waiting for you to finish talking to your friends when those robots came up to me. I thought they were friendly, so I asked them if they knew me. But then they said I needed to be captured, and I figured that it wasn't good so I cried for your help and the moment they..."

"It's okay Chip." Sonic said raising his hands. "You don't need to describe everything to me."

"But what about those robots?" Chip asked. "Who sent them and why would they want to capture me?"

Sonic then heard something in the air. Looking up he spotted a small ship with a familiar logo on it.

"I think I know who sent them." Sonic said.

He then ran in the direction the ship was going, with Chip following right behind him.

They eventually came to a stop right at a balcony, where they watched the ship fly above the town, dropping objects as it flew by. Sonic recognized the objects as robots that were no doubt being deployed to terrorize the citizens of the town.

"Figures, Eggman might do this." Sonic said. "He's already split the planet apart. So why not conquer the pieces of it?"

"Who's Eggman?" Chip asked.

"An enemy of mine." Sonic answered before he got ready to run. "Now it's time to show him that I'm still around and not gonna let him conquer anything."

He then rushed off to the town to destroy the robots that Eggman had deployed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Tails and Knuckles were beginning their trip to Apotos. They didn't leave immediately after Sonic called them as they finished cleaning up what they could in Tails' house.

Then when they got to the hanger, they found that while the Tornado wasn't badly damaged from the earthquake, it had tipped over on it's side and was pointed away from the hanger doors. As such Knuckles had to help Tails readjust the Tornado.

"Okay." Tails said to Knuckles as he sat in the pilots seat. "When I turn right, I need you to push the plane in that direction. Got it?"

Knuckles nodded. "Got it."

Tails then started up the plane and turned the wheel. "Okay, now."

Knuckles pushed and the plane quickly turned towards the open hanger door.

"Okay that's good." Tails called out once the plane was facing straight towards the door. "Now get on and let's meet Sonic."

Knuckles leaped on the plane as Tails began to pilot the plane out of the hanger and after a few seconds, lifted it into the air.

"So what do you suppose is up with Sonic?" Knuckles asked as they flew across the land.

"I'm not exactly sure." Tails replied. "I knew when he telling someone to be quiet, he wasn't referring to us."

"So you're buying his loud pedestrian excuse?" Knuckles asked.

Tails shook his head. "No, I think it might be something else. But I don't know what exactly"

Eventually, the land below gave way to sea, and Tails and Knuckles flew I silence for a bit.

After a few minutes, Knuckles spotted something below, causing his eyes to widen.

"Tails, look!" He cried out, pointing at the water in the distance.

Tails looked at where Knuckles was pointed and his eyes widened similarly.

"Oh my god." Tails quietly said.

What they saw was a large crack that was in between the ocean. By some miracle, the water wasn't flowing down into the crack, where there was a large amount of lava below. The crack was so large that they couldn't see the end of it on both the right and left.

For a few moments, they looked at the crack in both awe and terror.

"Eggman did this?" Tails asked in awe.

"I didn't think he was capable of it." Knuckles asked before turning to Tails. "You said you knew someone who knows about something like this, right?"

Tails nodded. "I don't recall all the details, but I do remember that it involved the planet breaking apart."

"So just like what Sonic said happened." Knuckles said. "Where exactly did you hear about this?"

"In Spagonia." Tails Answered. "I have a friend of mine there who teaches at a university there. Once we've met up with Sonic, we'll go to Spagonia and maybe we can find out what we can do."

As Tails continued to fly towards Apotos, Knuckles looked down at the crack in the earth. Wondering only one thing as he stared down at it.

'What the hell did you do to the emeralds Sonic?'


	4. The First Night (Part 1)

Sonic skidded around the corner of the Apotos town, narrowly avoiding the gunfire from the robots behind him. Running forward, he saw another group of robots right in front of him, aiming their rockets straight at him.

Taking a quick glance behind, he saw that the robots that fired at him before had arrived at the corner and were aiming their weapons at him.

Giving a small grin, he turned back to the robots in front of him, who had just launched their rockets toward him. Just before they hit him, he slid under them, missing him and hitting the robots behind him instead.

Looking forwards, he saw that the robots who had fired the rocket were getting ready to fire more rockets at him.

'Well, time to try something that I've been practicing for a bit.' Sonic thought giving a small smirk.

As the distance between him and the robots closed, Sonic suddenly sped up and rammed straight towards the robots. While normally, it would result in him coming to a sudden top from hitting them, the speed at which Sonic was going caused the robots to go flying and burst into pieces.

Looking behind him, Sonic saw the parts of the robots crash back onto the ground.

'Looks like that boost technique worked.' Sonic thought as he continued to run. 'Didn't expect it to work this well.'

Looking back forward, he saw that there the path he was running on was just reaching it's end. However, he spotted a plank propped upwards near the railing.

Going towards it, he waited until just before he was at the edge of the ramp before leaping off. As he soared in the air, he looked down and saw a few people looking up and noticing him.

He gave a small wave to them as he flew over them before landing on the ground and he continued to run.

Right up ahead, he saw a few more robots turn towards him and aim their weapons at him. Just before they had a chance to do so however, Sonic leaped towards the first one and hit him before he used the homing attack on the next robot. For the final robot, he dodged the blaster fire and leaped onto it's head before jumping again and slamming down on it.

He stopped and looked around for a moment at the remains of the robots. "Well, looks like that was all of them." he said.

Just then, he noticed a shadow fall over him. Looking behind him, his eyes widened.

He saw a robot hovering just above him, it's eye glaring down at him, and it had buzz saws attached to it's hands.

"Oh dear." Sonic said. "Should have expected that."

" _Please tell me you're not this naive._ " He heard Dar say.

Sonic ignored Dar's comment and began to run again, with the robot in hot pursuit behind him.

As he ran, he chanced a look back and saw the robot raising one of it's buzz saw arms and began to bring it down towards him.

Sonic barely managed to sidestep the saw, causing it to harmlessly grind against the spot where he once was.

'Well, at least he seems to be limited to the saws.' Sonic thought. 'Just gotta keep myself out of range of them until I destroy the robot.'

As if the robot heard him, it then deployed a machine gun from out of it's head.

"Oh come on." Sonic said as he looked back just before the robot began to fire the machine gun.

Sonic dodged the bullets as the robot fired away.

'I need to get out of this robots sight.' He thought.

Sonic looked around, trying to find another path that would get him out of the robots sight and defeat the robot.

Spotting a pathway between two buildings on his left, he turned the corner right as he was close to it. After he turned the corner, he saw a staircase that lead up to a path that was covered by a roof. He ran up to it just as the robot caught up to where Sonic turned.

The robot found the pathway too narrow to follow

As it flew over, it tried to search for Sonic. But it wasn't able to see him despite being right over where he was. Concluding that it could cut Sonic off from this end and end him.

As it waited however, it heard a noise coming from the building to it's left. It focused it's eye towards the building to it's left.

As it watched the noises grew closer, and a voice spoke.

"Coming through. Sorry about that."

Identifying the owner of the voice, the robot deployed a weapon out of it's head and aimed towards the building. Waiting for the hedgehog to appear so it could kill him.

Suddenly however, the robot saw Sonic suddenly launch himself off the building to it's right. Turning quickly, it launched a volley of missiles towards him.

Sonic however, simply dodged the missiles while mid air, even hopping on a few of them as they flew off and exploded harmlessly in the sky. The robot then tried to use one of it's buzz saws, but Sonic landed on it, jogging in place with a smirk on his face.

The robot in response, aimed it's machine gun at Sonic who simply leaped and used his homing attack on it's head just before it fired at him. Sonic then simply stood on it's head, looking down on the robot as tried to search for him.

"That's right." Sonic said. "You can't attack if you can't see me."

The robot must've heard him. So it spun around, causing Sonic to lose balance and fly off it, landing on the ground.

He managed to recover just in time to notice the robot on top of him, raising it's buzz saw to bring it down and kill him.

His eyes wide, Sonic managed to get out of the way just before the buzz saw hit him. After a brief moment, he noticed the other buzz saw right above him, also dodging it just before it hit him.

He then heard the grindings of the two saws coming closer to him. Looking around, he saw that the robot was bringing the buzz saws closer together, quickly narrowing the gap from behind.

'It's trying to cut me off.' Sonic thought. 'Making me an easier target for it's gun.'

Sonic turned back to the robot. Right now it was aiming it's gun at Sonic, fully prepared to kill Sonic once it had trapped him.

Sonic gave a smirk however. 'But it doesn't know that it just made the perfect opportunity to finish it off.'

Just as the buzz saws finished closing the gap behind him, Sonic made his move. He leaped back and forth between the two arms, dodging the gunfire as he did so. Right as he was close enough, he used his homing attack on the robots head multiple times.

He landed back on the ground a good distance away from the robot and he watched it flail it's buzz saws and fire it's machine gun in the air uselessly, as if it thought that Sonic was still in the air.

Eventually, it froze up and hovered in the air for a moment before crashing onto the ground, deactivated.

"And that's that." Sonic said as he brushed his hands together.

He then saw Chip fly right next to him, looking at the robot.

"Wow, that robot gave you a hard time Sonic." Chip said.

"Eh, I've faced tougher ones." Sonic replied. "I just need to figure out how to beat them and it's easy."

Just then, he heard something from behind. "Look, there he is."

Looking back he saw a small crowd of people coming up towards him and Chip. Some of them were holding cameras, microphones, or notepads. They soon came up to Sonic and begun talking and asking questions to him.

"Was Eggman responsible for the attack?"

"Was this in retaliation for you destroying his fleet?"

"Did he have something to do with the earthquakes around the world?"

"Is this part of a larger plan?"

"Do we have anything to be concerned about?"

With how close they were, Sonic had to back up a bit. Chip also hid behind Sonic, not used to large crowds.

"Look, everyone calm down." Sonic said raising his hands. "I can confirm a few of those questions."

He then breathed in. "I can confirm that yes, Eggman was responsible for the robot attack that had just happened. He is also responsible for those earthquakes that happened earlier."

One of the reporters stepped forward. She had black hair and had sunglasses on top of her head. "If Eggman was responsible for the earthquakes, what is the purpose behind them?"

Sonic looked away and thought about it for a moment. He wanted to tell everyone that they weren't just earthquakes, it was the entire planet breaking apart. But he knew that would only cause more panicking, so he decided to just stick with the earthquake story for now.

He turned back to the reporters. "I might not know the answer to that yet." He answered before giving a smile. "But you can be assured that whatever Eggman is planning, I'm going to stop him."

'Assuming I can fix a planet that broke apart.' Sonic thought to himself.

"So don't worry about it for now." Sonic continued. "I've got this covered. Thank you for your questions."

He then ran off, away from the reporters, with Chip flying right next to him.

'Well, that seemed to reassure them.' Sonic thought. 'But that earthquake story probably won't hold for long. Sooner or latter, someone is gonna break the news that the worlds broke apart.'

"Hey Sonic." Chip said. "Why did those people ask you questions, and why did they seem to like you? Are they more of your friends?"

Sonic looked at Chip and gave a small chuckle. "No, they aren't my friends, but they do know me for what I do." He answered.

"What is it that you do?" Chip asked. "Does it have something to do with that Eggman person?"

"Of course." Sonic answered. "You see, Eggman sends robots to torment people."

"Really? That doesn't sound very nice." Chip said.

"You're right." Sonic said nodding with a small smirk before he continued to explain. "Sometimes Eggman does something bigger that threatens the world and I have to stop him."

"Do you usually stop him? Is that why people love you?"

"Of course I do." Sonic answered. "That's why people usually love me."

" _And yet that family you tried to get help from in the forest ran away from you._ " Dar suddenly said.

'Had to ruin that moment didn't you.' Sonic thought with annoyance.

"Look." Sonic began to say. "That was because I was in that weird monster form, they didn't know it was me. And besides, that probably the result of some side effect from Eggman's machine that wore off."

" _You must be really naive if you think that's over._ " Dar replied.

Sonic stopped and crossed his arms. "You know, I'm thinking there's something you're not telling me."

" _Why would I tell you anything? You're not supposed to be aware of me in the first place._ "

"Yeah well, I can hear every word you're saying." Sonic replied.

" _You're also not supposed to be in control. I wanted you to eat that child._ "

"I WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" Sonic yelled. "Why did you want me to do that anyway?"

" _I was hungry."_  Dar replied. " _You were hungry when you landed, weren't you."_

Sonic thought about it for a moment. "Well, you do have a small point. I was hungry when I woke up. But I definitely wasn't thinking of eating someone."

" _It was the only food source that was around, aside from that annoying little creature you decided to name._ "

"Don't you dare call him annoying." Sonic said through gritted teeth.

Just then he heard Chip's voice. "Sonic, why are you talking to yourself?"

Sonic froze for a moment before he turned to Chip with an innocent grin on his face. "Uh, what do you mean Chip?"

"You were talking to yourself again." Chip said. "When I first met you, I saw you yelling at someone who wasn't there. And now you're doing it again. Is that something you also usually do?"

Sonic was silent. He had promised himself not to tell anyone about Dar for now, but it was pretty clear Chip suspected something. He wanted to tell Chip that he was fine and that talking to himself was something he did when he was nervous. But deep down inside, he didn't want to lie to his new friend.

He took a deep breath. "Can you promise to keep this a secret between us?" He asked Chip.

"A secret?"

"It means you can't tell anyone else about it." Sonic explained. "Can I trust you to keep this between us?"

Chip thought about it for a moment before he answered. "Of course. I won't tell anyone else about your secret."

Sonic then grabbed Chip and ran to a small alley, just out of view of anyone else.

He took a deep breath and began to explain. "I have this voice in my head."

" _YOU'RE TELLING HIM ABOUT ME NOW!?"_ Dar yelled, causing Sonic to flinch for a moment.

"Oh, was that why you were talking to yourself?" Chip asked, a bit surprised.

Sonic nodded. "That's right."

"Do you have a name for the voice?"

" _Refer to me by my actual name and not the one you choose please._ " Dar said. " _It's not Dar, It's Dark Gaia."_

"It want's to be referred by a specific name, but I just call it Dar." Sonic said smirking to himself. He heard Dar grown in anger in response.

"Oh, does Dar often annoy you?"

Sonic rubbed his quills a bit. "Admittedly, I only started hearing Dar this morning, but yeah, it often annoys me."

"How so?"

"Well before we met, he tried to get me to eat people and you. But I managed to ignore it. It still managed to finds ways to annoy me though."

"Do I have to worry about Dar?" Chip asked, a bit scared. "Is he going to take over you and try to eat me."

Sonic gave a small laugh. "I don't think you need to worry about that Chip. He hasn't gotten control of me yet."

" _Don't think you've won. I will eventually gain control of you._ " Dar said.

"Yeah that's not gonna happen." Sonic replied.

"Are you talking to Dar Sonic?" Chip asked.

Sonic sighed. "Yeah Chip, I am" he replied.

"Can you tell it I said hello."

Sonic laughed. "I'll make sure to do that."

" _Do that, and I will make sure the moment I get control of your body, that creature is my first meal._ " Dar said angrily.

"Why don't we go ask around more people while I wait for my friends to arrive?" Sonic asked, ignoring Dar's threat.

Chips eyes widened. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Maybe those people who asked you those questions may know who I am." He said cheerfuly.

"Alright." Sonic said. "Let's go ask them."

The two exited the alley and just before they went back in the direction the crowd was, Sonic noticed something.

He saw little girl he encountered when he landed in the forest with her father. Right now they were talking to what appeared to be a police officer.

"Right and you say you saw an animal?" The police man said.

"That's right." The father said. "It was large, had dark blue fur and had claws."

"Well we searched the area and found so sign of an animal matching that description. My best guess is that it was a bear or a wolf that wandered too close to the town area. It seems to be gone now so you don't have to worry about it."

Listening to this, Sonic felt hurt. The way the family saw him in that form, they acted like he was some kind of wind animal, even calling the police to search the forest for him.

But they didn't find anything, and Sonic knew that monstrous form was gone now. So he didn't have to worry about scaring anyone else.

As the police officer left, the little girl noticed Sonic and waved at him with a smile on her. Sonic gave a small wave back with a comparatively smaller smile.

"Hey Sonic, are we going to find out who we are?" Chip cried out.

Sonic turned back to Chip. "Uh, yeah. Just drifted off for a moment."

Sonic then ran up to Chip and the two then walked back to where the crowd was to ask about Chip.

* * *

Much later, Sonic and Chip were walking back to the part of town that they had entered. By then, the sun had nearly gone down, and Chip was feeling a bit down.

"Still no luck on finding anyone who knows me." Chip said sadly as he and Sonic walked.

"Don't worry about it." Sonic said, trying to reassure his new friend. "Maybe you're memory will come back on your own. Do you remember anything yet?"

Chip thought for a moment. "Nope." he answered sadly.

Sonic turned towards the setting sun. "Oh well."

Chip then also turned towards the sunset. For a moment, both of them watched the sun set.

"Wow, this looks beautiful." Chip said as he stared in awe.

Sonic gave a small smile. "Yeah, it is."

Eventually, the sun fully set, causing the street lamps to turn on around the town.

Suddenly, Sonic felt a sudden burst of pain and collapsed. Barely supporting himself with his hands on the ground.

"Sonic?" Chip asked, concerned over his friend.

Sonic was shaking, he felt the pain getting more intense as he noticed dark purple flames begin to emerge around him.

'What's going on?' He thought to himself. 'What's happening?'

" _Yes, I can feel some of my power beginning to awaken again._ " Dar said.

Sonic took a glance at his arms and noticed dark blue fur beginning to grow on it. As it did, it also began to bulk up, and Sonic noticed his hand growing larger, with black claws emerging from the fingertips of his gloves before the completely ripped apart, revealing his hand was now grayish light blue and had black pads on the tips and palms. He then felt his tail growing longer and looking back, he saw it grow and gain a bushy lair of the same dark blue fur, with white fur at the tip.

'No.' Sonic thought as he began to rapidly breath in terror as he began to recognize what it looked like. 'Not this again.'

His ears then changed, becoming a bit curved and improving his hearing. Which unfortunately meant he could hear his bones snapping as he transformed.

"Uh, do you want me to get help Sonic?" Chip said, slowly approaching Sonic.

Sonic tried to answer, but all he could do was groan in pain. Just as Chip was close, he noticed the front of Sonic' shoes begin to strain from pressure just before paw like feet with black claws at the ends burst from the shoes, causing Chip to stumble back a bit.

Sonic then clutched his muzzle, growling in pain as it lengthened and he felt his teeth sharpen and lengthen.

Sonic then slowly got up, showing that he had gotten taller, and let out a howl.

"AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

He then collapsed, using one arm to grab onto a lamppost that was next to him, the purple flames around him disappearing.

"Wow." Chip said. "Mister Monster Guy is back."

Sonic took several deep breaths, exhausted from the transformation, before he took a look at himself. Noticing his increased height and newly torn shoes and gloves.

'How am I like this?' Sonic thought. 'I thought this wore off.'

He then looked back at where the sun set, then he looked up at the sky. He noticed the moon in the sky. Thinking about it for a moment, and remembering what happened once the sun came up earlier today, he realized something.

"So when the sun goes down." He said as he stared at his hand. "I turn into this?"

" _So, you finally figure it out._ " Dar said.

Sonic ignored Dar, just like when he turned back to normal, there were a million questions going through his head. Was he going to have to turn into this every night? Could this be cured?

"Are you alright Sonic?" Chip asked, concerned for his new friend.

"I'm fine." Sonic answered. Though he was more or less trying to reassure himself rather then Chip before looking over himself. "I just need to be careful who see's me like this."

" _Are you assuming that no one heard your cries of pain during your transformation?_ " Dar asked. " _Because I'm sure that would get someones attention._ "

Sonic looked around. He saw that some people had stopped and were staring at him. It made him uncomfortable, especially with the memory of the family running away from him in the forest fresh in his mind.

Just then, Chip noticed something. "Hey Sonic, look."

Sonic turned in the direction Chip was going. "What is it?" He asked.

As Chip flew towards where he was going, Sonic did his best to follow, but he occasionally stumbled due to not being familiar with walking in his new form.

'I really got to get used to these.' Sonic thought as he stared at his transformed feet.

He eventually reached to where Chip was. "What did you see Chip?"

Chip pointed at what he was seeing. Sonic turned and saw what Chip was seeing.

It was the ice cream man they had met earlier, only now he was crying.

"It's hopeless." He cried between sobs. "The whole planet's split apart. We're doomed."

'I don't understand, why is he like this now?' Sonic thought to himself. 'And how does he know the planet's broken apart?'

" _Maybe he heard the truth elsewhere._ " Dar replied. " _Did you really think that earthquake story would hold up?_ "

"No, but I didn't expect the truth to break this soon." Sonic muttered.

Chip however, was a bit concerned. "Hey, mister." he said flying up to the man. "There's no need to cry."

His eyes then fell on the ice cream on display. "Uh, Ice cream" he said as he picked it up and brought it to the man. "How about more of this super tasty stuff?"

The Ice cream man looked at him sadly. "What good is ice cream at a time like this?" He sadly exclaimed.

He fell back on top of the counter, causing Chip to loose balance and fall down, losing grip of the ice cream.

"Oh no!" He exclaimed as he watched the ice cream fell to the ground.

Sonic's eye's widened. He ran and made a dive towards the ice cream, despite knowing that in his current form, he would never be able to reach it before it hit the ground.

Much to his surprise though, he saw the arm that was reaching towards the ice cream begin to stretch. It stretched until it was at the right length for him to grab the ice cream before it hit the ground. Once he grabbed it, the arm retracted back to it's normal length, leaving Sonic to stare at it in surprise.

'What the hell.' Sonic thought. 'Did my arm just…?'

Chip had apparently noticed it too. "Sonic, your arm just stretched."

Sonic got up, continuing to stare at his arm in surprise.

" _Well, this is certainly interesting."_  Dar said, also a bit surprised.

Sonic looked back at the ice cream vendor, and the display stand that the cone was in. He then stretched his arm again to put the ice cream back on it's display, his aim slightly off.

'Maybe this power can be useful.' Sonic thought as he looked at his arms.

The ice cream man looked at him for a moment before going back to crying again.

Sonic sighed. "Come on Chip, maybe there's some people we haven't asked about you yet."

"Okay, Sonic." Chip said before he turned back to the ice cream man. "Don't worry, it'll be alright."

He then flew back to Sonic, and the two began to move away from the ice cream man. After a few steps though, Sonic stopped and looked back at the ice cream man.

Looking at him, Sonic felt something. Almost like there was something off about how the ice cream man was acting. The grief of a worldwide disaster was understandable, but the man seemed to have gone through a complete 180 in personality, having no interest in selling ice cream. It was almost as if something was causing him to act this way.

"Hey Sonic." Chip said nudging him. "You alright?"

Sonic snapped back to his senses, shaking his head. "It's nothing." He replied. "Just spaced out for a moment. Let's go ask about your identity."

They then began to walk around town to ask people about Chip. However, most of the people they they encountered were people they had already asked earlier in the day. They did encounter people they didn't ask, but when Sonic went over to ask them about Chip, they reacted to his appearance first before Sonic could ask.

Of course they weren't like the family in the forest, most were perfectly willing to talk to him once they got over the shock. But there were some that kept their distance from him, which hurt Sonic emotionally.

After awhile, Sonic spotted the same store that he got his replacement pair of shoes and gloves, both now ruined thanks to the transformation.

Grabbing a couple of pairs of gloves that fit his normal form, he approached the shopkeeper.

"Excuse me." He said.

The shopkeeper turned to him, reacting with shock at his appearance before talking to him. "Oh, uh do you want to purchase something?"

Sonic nodded and gave him the gloves.

The shopkeeper looked back and forth at the gloves and him for a bit. "You sure you don't want a bigger size? I don't think these gloves would fit you."

Sonic sighed as he paid for the gloves. "Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you why I bought a pair that size."

The shopkeeper paused for a moment before he replied. "Alright, here's your change."

"Thanks." Sonic said taking the gloves and putting them away. "Have a nice night."

He walked away from the store and looked down at himself.

"You knew this was gonna happen to me, didn't you?" He asked Dar.

" _Yes._ " It replied. " _My power is weakened during the day_ _and increased during the night. Which is why you look like that_ _right now_ _."_

"Well then why didn't you tell me this?" Sonic growled. He didn't mean to do that, but he felt really frustrated upon hearing that. "It would have been nice to know before I transformed tonight."

" _Why would I even do that?_ " Dar asked, a hint of amusement in it's voice. " _It's much more fun when you don't know everything. And I know far more about what's happening then you realize._ "

"And let me guess, you're not gonna tell my anything about it." Sonic grumbled.

" _Correct._ "

"Well, did you know about my ability to extend my arms when I'm like this." Sonic said, taking a glance at his arms as if they were gonna suddenly stretch out again.

" _No actually, I had no idea that you could do that."_

Sonic gave a sigh and noticed a small archway nearby. Looking at it closely, he saw that it was a small garden with some flowers. Entering it, he began to lie down.

"What are you doing Sonic?" Chip asked.

"Getting some rest." Sonic answered. "If I only turn into this at night, maybe I can sleep it off."

"What about your friends?" Chip asked. "Aren't they going to be worried about you?"

Sonic froze for a moment. He forgot that he had called Tails and Knuckles and they were supposed to meet him. But now, how can he meet them like this? How would they even react?

"I'll meet them in the morning." Sonic finally answered. "They don't need to see me like this right now."

He then turned to Chip. "You should probably get some rest too. I think you've been up for most of the day."

Chip thought about it. "You know, now that you mention it, I am a bit tired."

Sonic gave a small smile, probably the first one he gave since he turned back into his monster form. "That's good. Tomorrow you'll get to meet my friends."

Chip then flew on top of his head, it still felt a bit odd, but Chip sounded like he was comfortable as he began to fall asleep.

As he did so, Sonic also began to try to sleep.

* * *

Meanwhile in the town, Tails and Knuckles had arrived in town, and were now trying to look for Sonic.

They started by walking around, trying to see if they could find Sonic. Once that didn't work, they began to ask around.

"Well, he's definitely here." Tails said. "I've asked around and people said they saw him."

"But where is he?" Knuckles asked. "You'd think he'd want to meet us."

"I don't know." Tails replied. "Maybe he decided to take a nap at an inn."

"You think they have inn's here?"

"Don't know, but it doesn't hurt to ask."

They then walked over an old lady who was standing outside.

"Excuse me." Tails said waving over to the lady.

The old lady looked at the two. "Yes, what do you want?" she said.

"Do you know if there are any inn's nearby?" Tails asked. "We're looking for a friend of ours. He's a blue hedgehog, has red shoes, white gloves, and his name is Sonic."

The old lady's face lit up. "Oh, I saw the person you were looking for earlier today. He asked me if he knew a creature he was with."

Knuckles eye's widened. "You saw Sonic?"

"Where is he now?" Tails asked.

"I don't know where he and that creature are right now." The old lady replied before she pointed to the right. "But if you think he's staying at an inn, if you keep walking down this path and turn left, you'll find an inn."

Tails nodded. "Thank you ma'am."

Tails and Knuckles then walk down the path that led to the inn the lady mentioned.

"The old lady mentioned someone else was with Sonic." Knuckles said. "Who do you think it is?"

"I honestly don't know." Tails replied. "Maybe we should ask him when we meet back up with him."

They eventually reached the inn and went inside to ask. Unbeknownst to them, they were being watched from the roof by a strange, blue, reptilian creature with red eyes.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sonic had no luck in falling asleep.

He had tried to get in a comfortable position to rest, but no matter what, he couldn't fall asleep.

'Great.' Sonic thought. 'Not only do I look like a monster by night, but I gain a case of insomnia.'

Right now, he was throwing a rock and then bringing it back with his arms. He figured that he might as well practice using his new ability.

After bringing the rock back after his recent toss, he looked at Chip, who he had moved towards a small leaf bed he had made. Unlike him, he was fast asleep, not even reacting to the times the rock he was throwing hit a wall.

"Lucky you, at least you're sleeping." Sonic muttered as he threw the rock again before grabbing it with one of his arms again once it hit the ground.

Instead of throwing it again, he dropped the rock and looked at his transformed hand.

The quietness allowed him to think about his situation, mainly his new form.

He knew that he couldn't keep this a secret from his friends forever. They were going to find out eventually, but how would they react? Would they be afraid of him or understand his situation and try to help him?

Was he going to have to spend the rest of his life turning into this every night? Could it even be cured? And would everyone still trust him if he looked like a monster.

Sonic rubbed his forehead. "I'm really beginning to not like this form." He muttered.

" _I think this form looks good on you._ " Dar said. " _Savior it._ "

'And how am I going to explain Dar to everyone?' Sonic thought.

His thoughts were interrupted by a loud screech. It was so loud that it woke Chip up.

"What was that?" He asked as he began to stir awake.

"I don't know." Sonic replied as he got up, another screech filling the air. "But it sounded nearby."

" _That sounded like my masters minions emerging._ " Dar said.

"Your master has minions?" Sonic asked surprised.

" _Yes and it looks like their doing their job._ "

"What exactly is their job?"

" _Attack anyone they see and try to possess others._ "

"Well I'm not gonna let that happen." Sonic said as he ran towards the direction of the sounds.

'Even though I have no idea how I'm going to fight them in this form.' Sonic thought.

As he ran as fast as he could, with Chip flying right behind him, he suddenly heard a voice.

"Excuse me."

Sonic stopped, nearly stumbling over thanks to his new feet, with Chip running into him. Turning to where the voice came from, he saw that it was an elderly lady that he had asked about Chip during the day.

"Are you the two gentlemen that I encountered earlier today?" She asked.

Sonic and Chip exchanged glances. "Uh, yeah." Sonic answered.

"I see." The old lady responded, not fazed by Sonic's monstrous form, which had him a bit relived. Not everyone immediately saw him as a monster "A few minutes ago, a two tailed fox and a red echidna came up to me and said they were looking for you."

Sonic froze when he heard that. "Could you repeat that please?" he asked, a bit concerned.

"A two tailed fox and red echidna came by and asked if they'd seen you. They also asked for directions for an inn. I do hope they're okay though, that sound sounded like it came from where I led them.

'That's Tails and Knuckles.' Sonic thought with worry. 'They have no idea they're in danger.

He then began to run again. "Thanks for the info ma'am. I really appreciate it" He said as he ran off, waving goodbye to the lady.

Chip flew next to him. "Sonic, why are you so alarmed? Are those two the old lady mentioned the friends you were talking about?"

"Yes." Sonic quickly said. "And now we need to go save them because they're in danger."

As he ran, he continued to hear the screeching, except it was louder now that he was getting closer to where it was coming from.

'I just hope I'm not too late.' He thought.


	5. The First Night (Part 2)

Sonic and Chip continued in the direction that Tails and Knuckles supposedly went. Chip was ahead of Sonic, while Sonic himself was trying his best to keep up with him.

"I can't believe I'm saying this myself, but wait up Chip." Sonic said as he ran. "I'm not exactly fast like this."

"But don't you want to get to your friends before anything bad happens to them?" Chip asked. "You seemed pretty concerned when you were told where they went."

"Of course I do." Sonic said. "But you keep getting ahead of me and..."

He didn't get to finish his sentence as he tripped over his feet and fell onto his face.

Growling, he got up into a sitting position and stared at his transformed feet in anger.

"Stupid feet." He said in a frustrated tone. "And stupid Eggman for turning me into this."

He punched a nearby wall at that last word, leaving a dent on the wall.

Sonic took a few deep breaths, trying his best to calm himself down. Hearing another screech as he did so

'You've known them for years.' Sonic tried to tell himself. 'They might be able to handle themselves against whatever is making that sound.'

Yet another screech filled the air.

'Except they probably have no clue of what's making that noise.' Sonic thought, worried thoughts entering his mind again.

" _Good, they'll be unprepared for what my master has unleashed."_ Dar said.

Sonic clenched one of his hands into a fist, trying his best not to let Dar get to him. He then gave a small yelp as one of his claws accidentally cut his palm.

Sonic brought his hand up and stared at the small cut that was lightly bleeding.

'I need to remind myself not to do that so hard.' Sonic thought as he rubbed it, trying his best to not have the claws touch the area.

However, as he stared at his palm, he realized something. Taking another look at his transformed feet, an idea formed in his head.

"Sonic, are we still gonna save your friends?" Chip asked.

Sonic looked up, for a moment, he forgot that Chip was still there. "Yeah, just a moment."

Slowly getting up, he placed his hands on the ground and raised his feet until he was balanced on the balls of the exposed part of them.

He then began to run on all fours. He fully expected to stumble or trip over himself, but much to his surprise, he was running perfectly fine like this. In fact, it felt almost natural to him. He also noticed that he was going faster like this. Not his usual speed of course, but it was faster then when he was running on twos.

However, despite all of this, he felt odd running this way.

"I feel like a dog doing this." Sonic grumbled as he ran.

Sonic and Chip continued on their way, this time at a much quicker pace. As they rushed through the town, the sounds of screeching became closer to them. Though to Sonic, it sounded much closer thanks to the hearing of his new form.

Just then, he spotted something and came to a sudden stop in front of a low wall. Crouching down, he peeked over the wall slightly to watch.

"Sonic, why are you..." Chip began to ask before he was suddenly grabbed by Sonic and pulled behind the wall.

"Quiet." Sonic said glaring at Chip for a moment before looking back over the wall.

Chip did the same and saw what Sonic was seeing.

Just below the wall were three strange creatures. There were reptilian in appearance and colored blue, with pink circles on their arms, and spikes on their back. Their heads were large, mouths filled with sharp teeth, black eyes with a pink iris, and a horn coming out of the front their heads.

Right now, they were roaming around the area, searching for anyone to attack. One scraped at a closed door of a building, Sonic could hear the people in there let out a few whimpers in terror.

" _It's a shame I can't join_ _them."_ Dar said. _"If I was in control of you, I could just use you to break open that door and let them do their work."_

"Yeah well, you're not, so they're safe." Sonic muttered as he watched.

"Sonic, what are those things?" Chip asked.

"Well from what Dar says, they're Dark Gaia's minions." Sonic answered.

"Oh, so they're Dar. Jr's?"

Sonic heard Dar growl in anger as he went back to watching the creatures.

As he watched them, he wondered how he was going to fight them. Using his speed was out of the question, he highly doubted he could use his spindash when he was like this, and he knew he couldn't use Chip as he had no fighting capabilities and would end up dead within seconds.

Sonic stared at his hand. Taking a closer look at his claws, he was glad he was still in control of himself. From their appearance, they looked like they could easily cut someone to pieces, especially a person.

He shuddered at that thought. He hoped he would never lose control at night, because he had no idea how he would live with severely injuring or killing someone because of him.

Hearing the people trapped in the building continue to whimper as the creature banged on the door, he realized there was only one option of dealing with the creatures like this.

"Chip." Sonic said. "Stay here until I tell you the creatures are gone."

"You're actually going to fight them?" Chip asked, both surprised and worried. "How are you going to do that?"

Sonic took one more glance at his hand and clenched it into a fist. "I might not have my speed when I'm like this, but maybe I can use what this form has."

Sonic then vaulted over the wall and landed on the ground below. The impact caused the creatures to turn their heads towards him.

For a moment, neither of them moved, as if they were processing the situation.

Then, one of the creatures let out a screech and began to charge towards Sonic.

Bearing his teeth with a growl, Sonic stretched one of his arms and slashed the creature with his claws. His arm extending to give it more reach.

The claws made contact with the creature, cutting it's flesh as it was simply butter, and causing the creature to stumble. Sonic didn't wait for it to recover as he continued to slash at it, moving closer as he did so.

Eventually, when he was close to it, he raised both of his arms and slashed downwards at the creature, finishing it off. Shortly after the creature stopped moving.

He quickly turned to the next creature. He fount it was charging towards him and it leaped towards him when it was close.

Sonic attempted to dodge the creature by rolling, but still not used to his form, he was unable to fully get out of the way before the creature reached him. It brought it's claw down on him when it was close enough, giving Sonic a few light cuts on his arm.

Putting a hand against the wound, he growled in slight pain and frustration and clenched his other hand into a fist and stretched his arm to punch the creature. The fist hit the creature in what appeared to be it's gut, staggering it a bit.

He dashed on all fours towards the creature and slashed at it's head once he was close enough. The creature collapsed after that.

Sonic looked around for the last creature. Just then he was tacked from his left by the creature and they both rolled around for a bit before Sonic found himself on his back and the creature on top of him under a balcony.

The creature swiped wildly at him, with Sonic doing his best to get it off of him. He tried to punch it in between shielding himself from it's swipes, but the creature wouldn't come get off of him no matter how many times he did so.

He then grabbed the creature's head with one arm and then slammed it to the ground as he got up. Noticing the bottom of the balcony, he grabbed the creature by the neck and stretched his arm upwards, slamming the creatures head into the ceiling and causing some dust to fall on top of him.

He did this a couple more times before tossing the creature aside landing not far from where he was. As the creature tried to crawl away, Sonic walked towards the creature. Once he was standing over it, he used his claws to slash the creatures back, finishing it off.

Once the creature had stopped moving, Sonic took a few deep breaths and looked at his hand, which was shaking. He also had a scared look on his face.

Thinking about his encounter, he had fully expected to have a hard time with the creatures because of his inexperience with his new form. Instead, it all seemed natural to him. The way he slashed at the creatures with his claws, the way he punched the creatures and slammed them in various places, it was almost like he had always been in this form. He attacked them like he was some feral beast.

But what unsettled him most was that he enjoyed it. He enjoyed attacking those creatures in such a brutal way. He enjoyed the rush that slashing those creatures brought to him. He enjoyed all of it.

Sonic put his other hand on his forehead as he continued to watch his hand tremble.

"This isn't right." Sonic quietly said. "This isn't how I'm supposed to fight"

"Sonic, are you alright? Are the creatures gone?"

Chip's voice snapped Sonic back to his senses. He looked up at where Chip was and saw his head peeking out from behind the wall.

"Uh, yeah." Sonic said. "You can come down Chip, the creatures are all gone."

Chip flew out from behind the wall and flew towards Sonic.

"Wow, you managed to fight off these creatures rather well." Chip said looking around at the fallen creatures. "Have you fought like this before?"

"No, not really." Sonic said scratching the back of his head. "It just came to me as I fought them."

Just then, Chip noticed something happening to the creatures. "Sonic, look." he said pointing to the creatures.

Sonic turned to where the creatures were and was surprised at what was happening.

The creatures were disintegrating into a purple smoke. Soon they evaporated into the air, leaving wisps of purple energy. The energy then flew towards Sonic and he watched in surprise as it went into him.

"That's weird." Chip said staring at Sonic as he patted the area where the energy went in him. "Why did that stuff go into you?"

"I don't know." Sonic said. "Maybe Dar knows something about this."

" _I can feel the energy you absorb making you stronger._ _"_  Sonic heard Dar say. " _But I still cannot control you."_

Sonic gave a sigh and shook his head. However, he realized Dar had a small point point. He did feel a bit more powerful after he absorbed the energy. It was as if the energy that the creatures left behind gave him strength

"What did Dar say?" Chip asked.

"Well apparently it's making me more powerful." Sonic said.

Just then, they heard another screech in the distance.

"That doesn't matter right now." Sonic said as he turned his focus back to what he came to do. "We still need to find my friends."

He then stared at the roof tops. "And maybe we should stick to the roofs. I think I could spot them more easily if we travel there."

Chip nodded. "Okay."

He then flew onto Sonic head, and Sonic stretched one of his arms and grabbed the edge of a rooftop, lifting them both up to the roof. Once Sonic was on the roof, he continued to run towards the screeching.

* * *

Elsewhere, Tails and Knuckles were still searching for Sonic.

"I just don't get it." Tails said frustrated as they left the fifth inn they asked. "Where could he be?"

"Maybe he was lying about being here." Knuckles suggested.

"No, I detected the signal from his communicator when he contacted us. He wouldn't just leave after contacting us."

"Well then maybe we can't find him because he's too afraid to tell us what happened to the emeralds. Did you hear him when he contacted us? It's almost like he didn't want to talk about it."

"Calm down Knuckles, he probably wasn't comfortable explaining what happened to them when he was talking to us earlier." Tails said, trying to calm Knuckles down. "I'm sure once we find him, he'll be ready to explain what happened."

"He better." Knuckles grumbled.

Just then, they heard a screech.

"And just what is making that noise?"

"Maybe it's just a bird." Tails said trying to reassure Knuckles. Though even he didn't have an idea of what was making that screeching.

They continued to walk for a bit until they heard another screech, this one much closer.

"Maybe we should stop searching for Sonic for tonight and look for him tomorrow." Tails suggested.

"Really? I thought that you wanted to see Sonic." Knuckles remarked.

"Yeah, but right now it's late and we might have a better chance at finding him in the morning." Tails replied.

Knuckles was about to replay when they heard something land from behind them. Both turned to it, with Tails hopeful that it was Sonic.

However, one look at what landed was all he needed to know that it wasn't Sonic.

The creature was blue, with spikes coming out of it's back, and a horn coming out it's head. When it raised their head towards them, they saw that it's eyes were back with pink iris's.

The moment it spotted them, it let out a screech similar to the one they'd been hearing all night, and charged towards them.

Tails was frozen in fear. Every part of his brain screamed at him to move, but his body didn't seem to respond to those commands.

Just before the creature was about to attack him, it was punched from the side by Knuckles. The creature was knocked to the wall, where it slumped down on the floor.

Knuckles didn't wait for it to get back up and continued to punch it until it didn't move.

Tails walked over to Knuckles as they both stared at the fallen creature.

"What the hell is that thing?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know." Tails said. "I've never seen a creature like this before."

He thought back to the encounter, the way the creature seemed to just appear, and how he didn't move as it was charging towards him. He hated the fact that he didn't even try to defend himself.

Just then though, he remembered the sound the creature made just before it charged at them.

"You don't suppose this creature has been making that noise we've been hearing all night." Tails said turning to Knuckles.

Knuckles shrugged. "Whatever sound that creature made sounded similar to that."

Suddenly, the creature lifted it's head out and let out a screech, startling the two. Once it was done with it's screech, it disintegrated in a cloud of purple smoke.

"Huh, that was weird." Knuckles said, a bit confused over what happened.

Tails then heard something coming from his left. Looking towards that direction, he took on a terrified expression from what he saw.

"Uh Knuckles." Tails said nudging the echidna. "I think I found the reason why that thing screeched."

Knuckles turn around and his face turned a similar expression Tails had.

Puddles of dark purple smoke had appeared in various places on the floor and walls, and creatures just like the one that attacked them were emerging. There were also other creatures that were smaller, had t-rex like heads, and walked on two small legs.

Once they had emerged, they began to slowly approach the two.

Knuckles turned his head towards Tails as he prepared to fight them. "I'll try to hold them off Tails. You just get out of here."

"Knuckles, I'm not leaving you." Tails protested.

"Tails, you need to go. You said you knew someone who could help Sonic out, he can't find that out if we're dead. Just run and try to find him."

Tails took a step back, but looked back and forth a bit between the open path and Knuckles, uncertain of what he should do.

"JUST RUN!" Knuckles yelled.

Tails gritted his teeth in slight frustration, and began to run away from Knuckles. As he ran, he heard Knuckles doing his best to fight whatever those creatures were.

Looking forward, he saw more puddles of dark smoke appearing on the floors and wall, and even more of the creatures emerged.

One of the rex headed creatures lunged towards Tails. He managed to grab it when it was just inches to his head. The creature snapped it's jaws and waved it's legs in the air, trying desperately to attack Tails. He responded by throwing it against a wall and continued running.

He eventually entered an empty park that had multiple paths laid in front of him. One that was straight ahead, and two more towards his left and right.

'Which way do I go?' Tails thought as he looked around, trying to pick a path to take.

He heard the creatures behind him coming closer, and knowing that they were going to get him if he doesn't run, he chose the path that was straight ahead.

Just as he reached the path, more of those creatures appeared in front of him. Including one that was giant, a club in one hand and it's head composed of one eye that glared down at him.

Terrified, Tails ran away from the creatures and tried to go on the path to his right. But as soon as he reached that path, more of the creatures appeared and began to march towards him.

Backing away from the entrance and looking around, he saw that the creatures that were chasing him had caught up to him, and had also appeared on the last opening path. With all exits cut off, the creatures began to close in on him.

'Someone.' Tails thought as he began to panic. 'Anyone, help me please.'

* * *

Sonic slashed at another creature and watched as it dissolved into purple smoke and it's remaining energy flew into him.

He and Chip had been traveling the rooftops for a bit, and had encountered a fair amount of Dark Gaia's minions. Sonic usually killed them quickly, usually by punching them off of buildings as he felt uncomfortable using his claws. Though at times he couldn't resist using a slash or two against them.

All the while, he occasionally glanced at the ground below, trying to see if he could spot his friends.

'Where could they be?' Sonic thought as he ran across the rooftops.

" _Hopefully my_ _brethren_ _had killed him."_ Dar said.  _"And it's your own fault for_ _not telling them where to meet you."_

Sonic silently cursed to himself. Once again, Dar had point, he didn't tell them where to meet him. If he had just told them to meet in the main part of town, they could've met there and discussed what to do.

Of course, that was before he found out he turned into this at night. He still wondered how they were going to react to how he looked. Would they run from him or still see him as the same person he's been?

Just then, his ears picked up someone talking not too far away.

"Get off of me you monsters."

Sonic stopped where he was and turned in the direction the voice came from, recognizing it.

"That's Knuckles." He quietly said to himself.

He then rushed towards where Knuckles voice came from. Jumping and swinging from rooftop to rooftop as he traveled.

Eventually, he reached to where Knuckles was and his eyes widened when he saw him.

Knuckles slumped against a wall, with his eyes closed, and three of the creatures he had been fighting all night were gathered around him. One of the creatures turned to the other two and let out a small screech, causing the creatures to run through the alleyway they were in.

Sonic didn't wait for the remaining creature to attack as he leaped down and ran on all fours before leaping to pounce on the creature. Once it lying back on the ground, he slashed at the creature until it dissolved.

Once he was sure it was all clear he approached Knuckles and went to see if he was okay.

" _Hopefully they managed to crack his skull and kill him."_  Dar said. " _That would be nice for me."_

Sonic ignored it and poked Knuckles lightly with his finger, careful not to accidentally injure him further because of his claws.

Knuckles gave a slight moan in response, causing Sonic to sigh in relief.

" _Darn."_ Dar said, disappointed.

Chip flew out from Sonic's head and stared at Knuckles. "Is this one of your friends Sonic?" He asked.

"Yeah, he is." Sonic replied. "Looks like he tried to fight those creatures and got knocked out."

"Well good thing you arrived before they could do anything worse to him." Chip replied.

Just then, Sonic realized something, if Knuckles was there and attacked by those creatures, then Tails must be nearby and in a ton of danger.

"Chip, stay here and watch Knuckles to see if he wakes up." He said.

"Why?" Chip asked.

"There's another friend of mine who's in danger, and I need to rescue him." Sonic explained. "Just please stay with Knuckles for now."

Chip looked at Knuckles for a moment before he nodded his head. "Okay, maybe I can explain what happened to you."

Sonic gave a small smile. "Thanks."

He then turned his back on him and stretched one of his arms and went back on the roof.

He began to run on all fours as fast as he could. Trying to get to Tails as quickly as possible in his current state.

He eventually spotted Tails and stopped to see what was happening.

He saw Tails surrounded by those creatures. Several of the ones he had fought, a few smaller ones that were t-rex like, and one giant one with a club. And he saw that Tails was terrified.

'Gotta rescue him.' Sonic thought. But just before he leaped towards the scene, he froze when he remembered how he looked.

'What if he see's me like this?' He thought as he stared at his hand.

" _Yes, leave him because of your appearance."_ Dar said, almost eager for him to abandon Tails. " _You know he'll never accept you like this."_

He looked back at Tails, he knew that if he abandoned him, Tails would die, and he would never forgive himself to him. But at the same time, he didn't know how he'd react to him like this. What if he ran away from him?

He then saw the giant creature raise it's club and bring it down at Tails, who barely dodged it. Only for him to get knocked to the ground by one of the creatures.

Sonic gripped the edge of the roof, the claws leaving scratch marks on the wall. He then let out a frustrated growl and shut his eyes.

'Screw it, it you don't intervene, he's gonna die.' He thought.

He then leaped off the roof and charged towards the creatures. Bringing his arm back, he stretched his arm towards the creature that towered over Tails, who was now raising it's claws, presumably to finish him off.

Just before it brought them down, Sonic's hand burst through it's chest and it wavered for a moment before it disintegrated.

The rest of the creatures turned towards him as Sonic arm went back to it's normal length. Soon after, they began to run towards him.

'That's good. They're focused on me.' Sonic thought as he prepared to fight them. 'Just need to defeat these and maybe I can explain to Tails why I'm like this.'

He took a look at Tails, who was looking shocked and a bit confused over what was happening fight now. 'Assuming he doesn't run off during all of this.'

He then heard a screech and turned his head to see one of the creatures leaping towards him. Just before it managed to attack him, he slashed at it with his claws. The creature collapsed on the ground and Sonic gave it a few more slashes just to make sure it was dead.

Noticing one of the rex like creatures coming close to him, he grabbed it with one of his hands and smashed it into the ground a few times. He turned to another creature, he tossed the rex creature at him, stunning it for a bit.

Once the creature recovered, it was greeted by the sight of Sonic dashing towards him on all fours and pouncing on it before he slashed him a few times.

One he was through with that creature, he turned to the giant one and began to punch and slash at it. However, no matter how much he did so, the giant one didn't seem to be affected by it.

Eventually, it raised it's club to squash him like a bug. Fortunately, Sonic noticed this and managed to get out of the way by rolling to the right. However, the titan noticed where he moved and as he raised the club, he brought it to where Sonic was.

Sonic noticed it too late and was hit in the chest. The blow sent him flying away from the titan and he eventually landed several feet away from it.

As he tried to get up, he was tackled by one of the creatures and he struggled to get it off. He eventually slashed at it's side and he managed to throw it off and got up.

Looking around, he saw that the creatures were beginning to surround him, and there were still plenty of them.

'There's too many of them.' Sonic thought. 'How can I protect Tails if there are so many of them.'

" _Maybe I could help._ " Dar said.

"What?" Sonic asked aloud.

" _Maybe I could help save your friend."_

"Yeah right." Sonic said. "Like I would want your help. You'll probably just take over my body and try to kill Tails anyway."

During his argument with Dar, one of the creatures leaped towards Sonic and knocked him to the ground.

He let out a small groan and as he tried to get up. As he tried to do so, he saw that Tails was now hiding behind an overturned food cart, having gotten out of sight of the creatures during the fighting.

'I'm sorry buddy.' Sonic thought sadly. 'I'm sorry I couldn't protect you.'

One of the creatures approached him and as it got closer, it raised it's claws and prepared to finish him off.

However just as it was lowering it's claws, Sonic's hand grabbed it. Surprised, the creature was then slammed onto the ground, where it looked up at Sonic.

He was now slowly getting up, growling as he did so. Once he fully stood up, he glared down at the creature, his eyes now having a yellow glow to them.

He snarled at it, revealing his sharp fangs. He then raised his own claws and slashed the creature in the head, killing it.

He turned towards the rest of the creatures, who were just a surprised as the creature. Confused over how he managed to get up and face them so quickly.

Sonic let out a roar and charged towards the creatures, slashing and punching wildly at them. Now however, the creatures seemed to die in just a single slice and despite his much bulkier form, he was moving a bit faster then usual.

Grabbing two of the rex like creatures, he bashed them together for a bit, and threw the two at a wall. He then saw that the creatures had surrounded him, and he then begun to spin in a circle, stretching his arms as he did so, causing the creatures to be slashed multiple times.

Once he was done, Sonic looked around for any more of the creatures. Suddenly, one of them leaped from behind him and bit him on the shoulder. He roared in pain and began to punch it, trying to get it off. When that didn't work, he slashed it in the eyes, causing the creature to cry out in pain and let go his shoulder. He then grabbed it's head and smashed it into the ground multiple times until it disintegrated.

Sonic then turned towards the giant, the last remaining threat. Snarling, he charged towards the giant, dodging it's club swing and leaping towards it's head.

He then slashed the creature in the eye, causing the creature to stagger as it covered it's eye with it's other hand. Sonic then grabbed it's feet and using his strength, he lifted the giant and tossed it I the air. As it hovered in the air for a moment, he brought his arm back and stretched it, punching through the giant, killing it.

Once the giant disintegrated, Sonic then shut his eyes and winced as he covered the bite on his shoulder, which was now bleeding. When he opened his eyes, they were back to normal.

"Ugh, what happened?" Sonic said. "Why does my shoulder hurt, and where did all the creatures go?"

" _Huh, that was a rather unexpected reaction."_ He heard Dar say.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, confused.

" _Well I_ _decided to experiment with the energy you had absorbed, and by infusing it with you, it appeared it makes you more powerful."_  Dar explained.

"WHAT?!" Sonic yelled. "YOU USED IT WITHOUT ASKING ME!?"

" _Why would I want to ask you? I'm trying to find a way to take you over."_

"But why don't I remember anything between now, and me lying on the ground."

" _I guess that must've been a bit of an effect of the power. A shame though, I could've taken you over."_

Sonic growled in frustration. "You don't know how long it could've lasted. I could've hurt Tails when I was like…."

He then stopped talking. Turning his head, he saw that Tails was still hiding behind the cart, surprised and a bit terrified at what happened.

* * *

Tails couldn't believe what had just happened. Minutes ago, he had fully expected for those creatures to kill him. Then, this beast had come and killed all of them like it was nothing. Sure, he got knocked down a bit, but he still managed to kill them all.

Peeking out from behind the cart, he saw that the beast was clutching it's shoulder, and staring at him.

Tails didn't know what to do at first. Sure the beast had saved him, but was he going to attack him as well? With the way he was staring at him, he wasn't sure what the beast was going to do.

He decided, just to be safe, to run. However just as he turned his back on the beast and was about to run, he heard the beast speak.

"Tails….wait."

He stopped and turned his head towards the beast. How did he know his name?

He turned towards the beast, who was now walking towards him. Thought he was more limping as he was clearly in pain because of his shoulder wound.

He eventually reached to where Tails was. Thanks to the light, he finally got a good look at the beast, which towered over him.

It had dark blue fur everywhere, except for his chests and wrists were also coated in white fur. From what he could see of the hand that wasn't covering the wound, was the same light blue as his muzzle, with black pads on his fingertips and palms, the fingers ending with black claws. It's long and bushy tail, not unlike Tails' own, was lightly swaying. Tails also noticed his red shoes were torn up at the front, revealing it's paw like feet that ended in black claws.

However, his head was what made him realize who the beast was. It's muzzle was a pale blue, with a couple of fangs sticking out from it's sides. The quills at the end were tipped in white, and despite the more aggressive appearance, his eyes seemed to plead for Tails to recognize him.

"Sonic?" Tails asked, even he couldn't believe who the beast was.

The beast gave him a small smile, revealing a bit more of his fangs. "You okay buddy?" he asked.

"Yeah." Tails said, still in a bit of disbelief over the identity of the beast. "What happened to you?"

Sonic gave a half-hearted chuckle. "You know me, never a dull moment."

He then winced a bit, and clutched his shoulder harder.

Tails eyes widened and he raced towards Sonic, concerned over his brothers health. "Do you need any help?"

"No no, I'm fine." Sonic said, trying and failing to reassure his friend. "I've had worse injuries."

He then looked at Tails. "I'll take it you were looking for me." He said.

"Yeah, me and Knuckles were searching everywhere for you." Tails answered. "But then we got attacked by those creatures and got separated."

"Guess I should've made a specific meeting place when I called you." Sonic remarked. "Otherwise, you and Knuckles wouldn't have gotten attacked by those creatures."

Tails gave a small laugh. "Well, you're here now. Albeit a bit hairier then usual."

Sonic couldn't help but smile at that, his tail wagging slightly. His brother still saw him as the same person, even if he looked a bit different.

"Although, now that I think about it, did you happen to see Knuckles?"

Sonic was about to answer that when they heard someone shout.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU MONSTER!"

Sonic turned in the direction the voice came from and saw that Knuckles was charging towards him.

"Knuckles wait! It's…."

He didn't even get a chance to finish the sentence as Knuckles punched him squarely in the face, knocking him out.

Knuckles was about to punch him again, but then Tails leaped in the way.

"Tails, get out of the way!" Knuckles yelled. "That monster was going to kill you!"

"That wasn't a monster Knuckles." Tails protested. "You just knocked out Sonic!"

Knuckles was confused. "That was Sonic?"

Tails nodded his head.

"Well did Sonic change his appearance between calling us and now." Knuckled asked. "Because last I checked, Sonic wasn't tall, hairy, and he certainly didn't have sharp claws, or fangs."

"Look, I don't know how he got this way either, but I do know that he's Sonic."

Knuckles was about to argue back, when they heard an unfamiliar voice.

"I'm sorry Sonic. I tried to tell him it was you, but he didn't listen."

Tails turned back to Sonic and he saw that a small, red, dog like creature with green wings talking to him.

"Wait, that's the strange creature I saw when I woke up." Knuckles said, pointing to it.

Curious about the creature, Tails approached it as it continued to apologize to Sonic.

"Uh, hi." Tails said waving his hand at the small creature.

The creature turned to Tails. "Oh hello." He said waving his hand towards him. "I'm Chip."

He then pulled a bar of chocolate out. "Want some Chocolate?"

Tails grabbed a piece of it. "Uh, Thanks." He said.

'Where did he get that from?' He thought.

"So, you know Sonic?" Knuckles asked Chip.

Chip nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, he's my friend."

"Friend?" Tails asked tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, he's trying to help me find out who I am."

Just as Tails was about to reply, they heard another screech from the creatures.

"Maybe we can talk about how you know Sonic later." He said. "But right now, I think we should find an inn to stay for the night."

He then walked over to Sonic and did his best to lift him. After a few unsuccessful attempts, he turned to Knuckles.

"Knuckles, help me out." He said.

Knuckles then approached Sonic and with some slight difficulty, managed to help Tails lift Sonic up. Though even he was a struggling a bit.

"Oof. When did Sonic get so heavy?" Knuckles asked as he and Tails dragged Sonic.

"Well maybe if you didn't knock him out, he would've explained what happened to him." Tails said, slightly annoyed.

"I'm sorry okay. I didn't know it was him."


	6. Decision

Sonic stirred awake. He found himself on his side, lying on a bed, and still in his monster form. His nose also felt sore and he felt something wrapped around his chest.

Groaning, he slowly sat up, rubbing his nose with his hand.

'Did Knuckles really have to hit me that hard?' He thought as he finished rubbing it.

Looking down, he saw that his chest was wrapped in bandages, which went around the bite mark on his shoulder, he saw that there was red where the bite mark was.

He then turned his attention to the room he was in. It appeared to be a simple hotel room. He saw that it had dark green walls, another bed next to the one he was in, a small TV on a drawer in front of the beds, a closet, and another door that presumably led to the bathroom.

'Where am I?' He thought

He then heard Tails' voice coming from nearby.

"So you met Sonic when he was like this?"

"Yep, thought he was gonna eat me at first. But it turns out he's pretty nice."

Turning his head, he saw that Tails was on the right side of his bed, talking to Chip. While Knuckles seemed to be sitting on a chair, listening to Chip.

"Yeah well, Sonic is like that." Tails replied to Chip.

Chip then looked at Knuckles. "And what about you. Do you usually punch Sonic?"

Knuckles slapped his forehead and gave a moan. "You're just never gonna let me live that down are you?" He muttered.

Sonic suddenly felt a sore feeling in his shoulder he was bitten on. He clenched it with his arm and let out a groan.

Tails turned to the bed he was on and noticed he was awake.

"Sonic." He said as he ran to the bed.

"Hey buddy." Sonic said rubbing his shoulder as he positioned himself to sit at the edge of the bed. "Care explaining why I'm in a hotel room instead of the ground outside."

"Well, after I convinced Knuckles that you weren't a random monster, we decided to take shelter for the night and we entered this inn to rest for the night." Tails explained. "Though we did have to convince the owner that you weren't some wild animal."

"And I'll take it you decided to patch me up a bit." Sonic said indicating to the bandages.

Tails nodded.

Knuckles approached Sonic, his face had a slightly embarrassed expression. Sonic could easily figure out why that was the case.

"Uh, hi Sonic." Knuckles said, waving his hand at him.

Sonic gave a slight wave back. "Hey, Knuckles." He replied.

" _Kill him."_  Dar suddenly said.

Sonic's eyes widened, though just slightly enough for Tails and Knuckles to not notice. 'What?' He thought.

" _Kill him."_ repeated Dar. " _He attacked you, might as well kill him before he does so again."_

As Dar spoke, Knuckles also began to apologize to Sonic.

"Sonic, I'm sorry that I attacked you." He said. "I just saw you like this in front of Tails and assumed you were just another monster."

'Look, he didn't know it was me.' Sonic thought to Dar, hoping it would listen to him. 'He knocked me out by mistake and he's sorry for it.'

" _He's lying. He's only apologizing_ _just to make you think he feels better. It's better to kill him."_

"I really should have listened to your new friend." Knuckles continued. "And I should have noticed that you weren't really attacking Tails. So I'm sorry Sonic."

" _What are you waiting for? Kill him!"_

"I'M NOT GOING TO KILL HIM!" Sonic said through gritted teeth, creating a few scratches in the mattress from gripping the edge of it too hard.

Tails and Knuckles looked at him in surprise. Sonic realized that he forgot that no one else could hear Dar, and he wasn't exactly ready to reveal it's existence to them.

"What did you say Sonic?" Tails asked a bit confused.

"Uh..." Sonic said, trying to figure out out a way to cover what he just said without them getting suspicious. "I meant I wasn't going to kill for it Knuckles. Apology accepted."

He gave a nervous grin, which probably looked a bit terrifying to the others.

"Right." Tails said. He seemed to buy it, but Sonic could tell he was still a bit suspicious.

Sonic felt a bit uncomfortable right now, especially after his outburst at Dar.

"You guys mind if I go to the bathroom?" Sonic asked, pointing back to the door leading there.

"Yeah sure." Tails replied.

Sonic got up and walked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, looking down as he did so.

He then approached the sink and turned it on. He let the water flow on his hand, watching it for a bit before he splashed his face with it.

He continued to look down. He didn't want to see his reflection when he was like this, but he knew he had to see himself eventually.

Slowly looking up, he came face to face with himself in the mirror. He almost didn't recognize the face that was staring back at him as his own.

The same dark blue fur had covered his head, except for his muzzle, which was a pale blue. His quills also had white tips at the end. His muzzle also appeared to be longer, complimenting his now wider mouth. He saw that a couple of his fangs protruding out of the sides of his mouth.

Opening his mouth, he saw that while his front teeth were still normal, the rest of his teeth had become sharp fangs. They looked like they could easily tear into a piece of meat, or possibly an animal or person.

He shuddered at that thought. He hoped he never lost control when he was like this.

"Sonic, are you alright in there?" He heard Tails ask.

Sonic turned back to the door, snapping out of his thoughts. "I'm alright, I'll be out in a moment." He answered.

He turned off the faucet, opened the door, and exited the bathroom. He walked back to his friends and sat back down on the bed. Though thanks to his new tail, he had to shift his position a bit due to not being used to it. Eventually, he managed to get in a comfortable position, putting his tail on his left side.

'How does Tails manage to sit with this?' Sonic silently asked glaring at it. 'Especially since he has to deal with two of these.'

"So." Tails said looking at his brother. "Mind telling us how you got like this."

Sonic sighed. "Well, you know how I told you how I fell into Eggman's trap that allowed him to break the planet." Sonic started.

" _That you helped cause."_  Dar added, which Sonic ignored.

Tails nodded. "Right, you mentioned that in your call."

Sonic then stared at his hand. "I guess something happened while I was getting shocked and I transformed into this."

"But you sounded pretty normal when you called us." Knuckles pointed out. "What happened in between you turning into that thing and calling us?"

"Well after I met Chip, I turned back to normal. At the time, I assumed that it was just some side effect of Eggman's machine that wore off."

He then sighed. "Then I turned back into this when the sun went down."

Tails looked down at his ruined shoes, which showed his exposed and paw like toes slightly wiggling. "I guess this is why you asked me to bring a pair of shoes for you." He said.

"Hey, I didn't think I was going to turn into this every night." Sonic said. "I bought another pair after I arrived in town. The only reason I asked you to bring me a pair of my own was I felt a bit more comfortable with a pair of my own."

"I see." Tails said scratching his chin. "What about your gloves?"

"I already have a spare pair." Sonic answered.

"Okay." Knuckles said as he stepped forward. "Now that we know what happened to you, and now that we're all together. Do you mind telling us what happened to the Chaos Emeralds?"

Sonic suddenly became very worried. He knew he had to reveal the truth of what happened to the Chaos Emeralds, but he didn't know how they would react once they found out, especially Knuckles.

" _Don't show them."_ He heard Dar say. " _They will never forgive you once they_ _find out the truth."_

Sonic shut his eyes, and gritted his teeth. There was no avoiding it now.

"Alright Knuckles." He said as he stood up and, got the emeralds out. "Here they are."

He then extended his hand, which was in a fist, and opened it up. Three of the chaos emeralds dropped to the floor. As he did so, Knuckles saw how the emeralds were now dull and colorless.

Knuckles looked back at Sonic, clearly trying his best to keep his anger that was now building in him.

"Is it just these three, or are all seven like this?" Knuckles asked in a quiet and dangerous tone.

Sonic was nervous to answer, knowing he wasn't going to like the response he was going to get from Knuckles. But he slowly nodded. "Yes Knuckles, Eggman drained all seven of them of their energy."

For a brief moment, neither of them spoke. But Sonic could easily see Knuckles beginning to shake in anger. Tails and Chip also began to back away from them slowly, knowing they weren't going to like what was going to happen next.

Knuckles then punched Sonic on the side of his face, causing Sonic to collapse to the floor. He groaned as he lied on the floor.

'I deserve that.' He thought.

"Sonic, are you alright?" Chip asked. "He didn't knock you out again, did he?"

"No Chip, I'm fine." Sonic muttered as he rubbed the place where Knuckles punched him.

Knuckles meanwhile, began to yell at him. "You know Sonic, I knew you were a bit reckless when it comes to handling these things. But I didn't think you would go and drain them."

Sonic managed to roll to his side and turned his head to him. "Did you forget everything I told you? Eggman drained them, not me!" He yelled.

"Well you fell right into Eggman's trap, so it might as well be you." Knuckles yelled back. "Now because of your actions, the master emerald is powerless, and Angel Island is back in the ground. And as far as I know, there's no way I know of to fix this."

Tails was about to speak when suddenly, Sonic grabbed Knuckles by the throat and slammed him against a wall.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" Tails asked, surprised by his brothers sudden aggression towards Knuckles.

Knuckles stared at Sonic, struggling to get free of his grip. He was also surprised at his strength, lifting him just above the floor

"Do you really think I have it any easier?" Sonic growled at Knuckles as he pinned him against a wall. "So you're island fell into the ocean, big deal. I had to endure a fall from space once Eggman was done with me, and I have to turn into this every night."

He then pointed at himself with his free hand. "And I will tell you, turning into this is not painless. Do you have any idea how it feels to have your skeleton change and your teeth lengthen? It hurts like hell."

He then brought his face close to Knuckles. "So forgive me, if I don't feel sorry for your current situation."

He pulled his face back and dropped Knuckles, who began to catch his breath. As he did so, Sonic's expression was changing into one of regret.

"Sorry Knuckles." He said, realizing what he did. "I don't know what came over me. I just got angry all of a sudden."

"Well." Knuckles managed to say after a few seconds of catching his breath. "I guess I better make sure I don't make you angry."

" _A shame."_  Sonic heard Dar sigh. " _You were this close to killing him."_

'Shut up.' Sonic thought.

He then sat down and rubbed his head as he took a few deep breaths. He had no idea what was with that mood swing. He had fully expected Knuckles to be angry at him because of the emeralds. But as Knuckles was yelling at him, it felt like his anger suddenly took over him and he had to take it out on someone.

'I didn't mean to get that angry.' Sonic thought. 'Is this an effect this form has on me, or did Dar almost take over me.'

If it was the latter, if this was what he was like if it was close to taking over him, he had to try his best not to let that happen.

He then felt someone place their hand on his own. He looked up and saw Tails staring at him, a look of worry for him.

"You alright Sonic?" Tails asked.

"Not exactly." He replied. "I need to find a way to get rid of this and fix the planet."

"Well I think I can help with the broken planet." Tails said. "I know someone who might know what's going on and how to fix it."

"Really?" Sonic asked crossing his arms. "And who might that be?"

"Professor Pickle." Tails answered. "He teaches at a university in Spaognia."

"That's right, I think you mentioned someone like him on our way here." Knuckles said, having gotten back up.

"Spagonia huh. That's a continent over." Sonic muttered. "An easy jog if the planet weren't broken."

'And if I wasn't like this.' He mentally added.

Tails gave a small chuckle. "Do you really think that you running is your only mode of transportation? We can use the Tornado to get there."

"Alright, then let's go." Sonic said beginning to get up.

"Hold it right there Sonic." Tails said. "I think it's best if we rest for the night. With those creatures out there, it might be too dangerous for us to travel to the Tornado."

"But I managed to fight them off." Sonic protested. "I can protect you guys while we travel there."

"I don't think you should do any fighting with your shoulder like that." Tails said. "I think that it's best that you get some rest, and we can go to Spagonia in the morning."

"Your friend is right." Chip said. "When you ran off to save him, I was afraid that you would die and I would lose the first friend I had. And when your red friend punched..."

"Okay, I get it!" Sonic said, sounding a bit frustrated. Even if he didn't mean it. "We'll go to Spagonia tomorrow morning."

"Well, good to know you care about your own safety." Knuckles teased. "I wouldn't imagine what would happen if you tried to fight those creatures in your current condition."

"How did your fight go with those creatures before I found you Knuckles?" Sonic remarked.

Knuckles was quiet at that.

Tails sighed. "Look, we're all tired, and it's been a long night. Let's just get some rest and we can find out how to fix the current problem tomorrow."

Knuckles sighed. "Fine."

He then walked to the bed next to Sonic and lied down on it.

Sonic then crawled near the pillow end of his bed, sighing as he did so. Tails walked over to his side as he lied down and pulled a few of the sheets over him.

"Don't worry." Tails said, trying to reassure him. "We'll try to find a way to fix you and get rid of that form of yours."

Sonic gave a small smile. After everything that happened tonight, he needed to be reassured that Tails would try to fix his own problem alongside the one the planet was in.

Tails then went to the chair and began to sleep in it, with Chip flying over next to Sonic's head and sleeping there.

Sonic however, spent the rest of the night lying awake, unable to sleep thanks to his new form.

As he lied there, he heard the screeching of the creatures continue. Grabbing a pillow, he covered his head with it to try to block out the noise.

* * *

Morning eventually came, with the early rays of sunlight peering through the window. However, it also caused Sonic to turn back to his normal form. Causing a bit of a ruckus that woke up the others.

The others reacted in different ways. Tails ran to him as soon as he woke up, worried about his brother, Chip flew up to watch him turn back to normal, and Knuckles rolled awake and simply stared at him with a tired expression.

Eventually, Sonic finished his transformation and found himself trapped in a pile of loose bandages that he struggled to get out of.

"Uh, could I use a bit of help here." He said with a nervous smile as he tried to escape the bandages.

Tails and Knuckles helped free Sonic from the bandages and tossed them in the trash.

"Well, one things for certain, we don't need an alarm clock with you around." Knuckles remarked as Sonic put on another pair of gloves.

"Thanks Knuckles. I'll be sure to be there right before you wake up." Sonic said. "Probably just as good as when Angel Island fell down, assuming you were sleeping at that time."

Knuckles groaned in anger towards Sonic.

"If you two are going to act like this, then maybe I should just put you in separate rooms." Tails said as he gave Sonic the spare pair of shoes he bought. "Now let's reapply the bandages to your shoulder Sonic and we'll go eat breakfast."

As Sonic put his shoes on, Tails examined the bite mark on Sonic shoulder and found something surprising.

"What is it Tails?" Sonic asked, noticing his brothers look of surprise.

"That's interesting." Tails said.

"What's interesting?" Sonic asked, getting slightly worried. "Is there something wrong?"

"No." Tails replied. "It's just that your wound is mostly healed now. Look."

Sonic looked down at his shoulder. Much to his surprise, he saw that the bite mark one of the creatures gave him last night was mostly gone. Aside from a few open holes and some small scars, it was almost as if the wound never happened.

"Huh." Sonic said. "I guess I'm a fast healer."

'Is this another one of those abilities I have when I'm in that monster form?' Sonic secretly thought, hoping Dar would at least answer. But he didn't get any response.

"Well regardless, I think we should still put the bandages on." Tails said as he unraveled a roll of bandages.

Once they had reapplied the bandages, everyone left the room and went into the dining area of the inn.

Once they had gotten their food, they began to eat. Tails was eating some french toast, Knuckles was having some waffles, and Sonic had gotten some pancakes and was sharing some of them with Chip, who was eagerly eating them up.

However, Tails noticed that Sonic wasn't really eating his food. He saw that he was sometimes poking his pancakes with his fork. He assumed he was still bothered by his other form, with him knowing that he was going to have to turn back into it when the sun went down.

He then looked at his face and noticed that his eyes had bags under them, and he looked a bit tired.

"Sonic, did you even get any sleep last night?" Tails asked.

Sonic looked at him. "What?" he asked in a slightly tired voice.

Tails sighed. "Did you get any sleep last night?" he repeated.

Sonic looked down. "No, not really. That stupid monster form wouldn't let me sleep." He answered.

"Have you gotten any sleep at all since this began?"

"Well, unless you count Knuckles knocking me out, I haven't really gotten any sleep at all."

" _You weren't even supposed to be asleep when you were like that_ _at night_ _._ " He heard Dar say. " _You were supposed to be out with my brethren, terrorizing everyone."_

'You couldn't have let me sleep for at least a couple hours?' Sonic thought with annoyance.

"Well, you can rest on the Tornado on the way to Spagonia." Tails said. "I think you clearly need it."

Sonic smiled at him. "Thanks Tails, I'll do that when we're traveling."

"Sonic, are you going to eat those pancakes?" Chip asked indicating to the remaining ones on his plate. "Because I wouldn't mind if you want me have the rest."

"No. I think I can eat those." Sonic answered. "But thanks for asking Chip."

Once they finished their breakfast, they left the town. As they left, they passed by the ice cream man Sonic and Chip had met. As they walked past him, Sonic noticed that he had returned to his cheerful self. Almost the same as he was when he met him and Chip.

The group eventually reached where Tails landed the Tornado. Which was a clear field with a lone windmill that stood there.

They got onto the plane, with Sonic sitting in the seat behind Tails, Chip sitting on Sonic's head, and Knuckles crouching on the left wing of the plane.

"Is everyone ready?" Tails asked, looking back at the others.

Sonic gave a small thumbs up, Knuckles did as well.

"Okay." Tails said as the propeller began to spin. "Next stop, Spagonia.

As the plane took off, Sonic began to close his eyes. By the time they were in the air, he had fully fallen asleep.


	7. The Missing Professor

Sonic was hanging on the edge of the window on Eggman's space station with one hand, trying his best to hold on and not being flung into space. He remembered that this was when Eggman threw him down into space, but something he quickly noticed was that he was in his normal form instead of his monster form.

He tried to get his free hand to grab the railing, but he lost grip shortly after and began to fall towards the broken Earth. At first, the fall was just like he remembered before he fell unconscious. Then just as he reached to point where he did fall, he began to fall faster.

Looking down at the earth, he saw that instead of falling towards one of the pieces, and thus, one of the continents. He was falling between one of the pieces of the planets, right into the lava.

Sonic shut his eyes as the speed of his fall increased. He knew that he was going to hit the lava and burn to death.

Eventually, he was falling so fast that all he could hear is the air rushing through his ears.

After a few more seconds, much to his surprise, he felt himself hit the ground instead of the lava. Slowly opening one eye, he saw that he was lying face down on rock.

Groaning, he slowly got up and looked around at his surroundings. He found that he was on a small platform of rock, completely surrounded by lava and even more rock all around him.

He looked up at the chasm he fell down. 'How am I gonna get out of here?' He thought.

Suddenly, the ground began to rumble and he heard something from behind him. Turning around he saw a pillar of purple energy emerging from the lava, towering over him. It soon began to take a different shape, the shape of a creature with long thin arms, and a hammer-like head. A pair of green eyes opened in it and glared down at him with pure hatred.

A tentacle of purple energy emerged next to the energy of creature and began to bring itself back.

Sonic knew full well what that meant and tried to run. However, his feet wouldn't move, it was as if they were stuck in place. Looking down, he saw that some of the purple energy had emerged from the rock he was standing on, wrapping around his feet.

"Sonic wake up."

Sonic looked around. Why did he hear Tails' voice? Was he also here too?

He tried to move again, but still wouldn't budge.

Looking down, he saw that the purple energy had traveled further up and wrapped itself around his leg.

He tried to pull the purple energy off of his legs, but they wouldn't budge. All the while, he continued to hear Tails' voice.

"Wake up Sonic."

He noticed a shadow form over him and looking up, he saw that the large purple tentacle was beginning to descend over him.

With one last desperate attempt, he tried to move out of the way. But once again, he was unable to move thanks to the purple energy.

As the tentacle lowered, he futilely shielded himself with his arms.

"Sonic are you still there?"

The tentacle then reached where Sonic was and crushed him.

* * *

"SONIC WAKE UP!" Chip yelled at him.

Sonic, having snapped awake, was greeted by the sight of Chip in front of his face. He was so startled by it that he let out a surprised scream and fell off of the seat on the tornado and onto the ground below.

Tails and Knuckles, who were waiting next to him when he woke up, ran over to him and checked on him.

"Well, he's awake." Knuckles said in a deadpan tone.

"You alright Sonic." Tails asked as Sonic sat up and rubbed his head.

"Yeah." Sonic replied. "Just had a bit of a nightmare."

Chip then flew up next to Sonic, his face showing worry for Sonic. "I'm sorry Sonic, I didn't mean for you to fall." He said.

" _Yes he did."_  Sonic heard Dar say. " _He's trying to kill us."_

"It's alright." Sonic said, giving Chip a small smile and doing his best to ignore what Dar said. "Not the worst fall I've had within the past two days."

He then turned to Tails. "So have we arrived in Spagonia?"

Tails nodded. "We have, we're not far from the town where the university the professor teaches at is." He answered. "It's basically a short walk from here."

Sonic nodded with a smile. "Then let's go and meet him."

They began to walk towards the town. As they did so, Sonic thought about his dream.

He figured it had to do with whatever Eggman did to the planet. The broken planet and purple energy he saw was proof enough of that. But he was a bit confused over certain elements of the dream. Such as the purple energy that appeared and the pillar that turned into a creature before crushing him with it's tentacle.

He wondered if that part of the dream had something to do with Dar. He knew that Dar couldn't control him during the night, but at the same time, he knew almost nothing about it aside from the fact that it was connected with this Dark Gaia creature, and was trying to control him.

If it failed by simply trying to control him when the sun went down, did this mean it was trying to control him in a different way? If that was the case, what was with his blackout when he was saving Tails?

He glanced at Tails as he thought about it. From what he could gather after he came out of his blackout, he had killed all the creatures that were attacking Tails, and Tails was relatively unharmed. But what if he accidentally hurt him? What if he killed him by mistake?

He knew that whatever happened, he had to make sure that whenever night fell, his friends had to be away from him whenever he fought in order to prevent them from being hurt.

* * *

The group eventually entered it to the town that the university was located in. As they walked through the cobblestone path of the town, they observed their surroundings. They saw many buildings that were made of brick and beige colored stone. They also saw a different variety of stores, from bookstores, clothing stores, and cafes. There were people in the street's either walking around the town, shopping at the stores, or sitting at the cafe's either eating or drinking.

Sonic turned back to Tails. "So where is this university that this professor teaches at?" He asked.

"It shouldn't be too far." Tails answered. "Just follow me."

As Sonic and Knuckles began to follow Tails, Sonic noticed that Chip wasn't next to him.

'Oh no.' Sonic thought with panic as he turned his head. 'Where did he go?'

He then saw that Chip was staring through a window at a nearby store out of curiosity. Sighing with small relief that he hadn't gone far, Sonic ran up to him.

"Uh Chip." He said, poking Chip's shoulder as he spoke.

Chip turned to him with some surprise. "Oh, it's just you Sonic." He said.

"What exactly are you doing Chip?" Sonic asked.

"I just wanted to look at what was in this store." Chip answered. "Some of the things that people buy here look very different then in Apotos."

"Well, that's true of most places." Sonic said with a small chuckle. "But I don't want you wandering off in a place like this."

"But I want to explore this place." Chip exclaimed. "It's just looks so different then where we were."

"Yes, and it's a place where you could get lost." Sonic added. "Besides, we need to be somewhere so me and my friends can figure out how to fix what happened to the planet."

Chip's head and ears lowered in sadness. "Okay, I'll stay with you for now."

Sonic, realizing he accidentally hurt his new friends feelings, gave a small smile. "Don't worry, I'm sure the university will have plenty of sights for you to see." He said reassuringly. "Besides, once we talk to the professor, maybe we can do some exploring of the town."

Chip looked back at him, a bit happier now. "Okay." He said cheerfully. "If it means we can explore, I'll stick with you."

"Thanks Chip." Sonic said.

"Hey Sonic, are you coming?" Knuckles called out from behind.

Sonic looked behind him and saw that Tails and Knuckles were waiting for him. "Yeah, just a moment." He said.

He ran back over to them, and they continued on their way to the university.

" _If only you didn't notice he was gone."_  Dar mused as they walked. " _Then we could have been free of that annoyance."_

Sonic sighed. "If you think I wasn't going to search for him, then you're mistaken." He said.

Dar gave out a frustrated sigh. " _I'm not going to be able to convince you to abandon him are you?"_

Sonic shook his head. "Nope."

" _Fine. I guess when I eventually find a way to take over you, that creature is going to be my first meal."_

Sonic crossed his arms. "Well given your attempts so far, that's probably not going to happen."

" _I've only been inside you for two nights."_  Dar said. " _I still have plenty of time to try and take you over."_

Sonic gave a sigh.

Just then, Tails stopped. "We're here." he said.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Chip stopped at where Tails was at and looked at the building.

It certainly looked like a university. The stone building was large, looking like it was a few stories high, with pillars holding up the roof that was hanging just above the entrance. They could see various statues with students hanging around them, either talking to each other, or simply just hanging out.

They began to walk up the steps. As they did so, they listened to the conversations the students were having.

"Pickles classes were canceled again today."

"You have any idea what was with that Earthquake a couple of days ago?"

"Have you asked the Dean why the professor hasn't been in lately?"

"No not really."

"How much longer do you think the professor going to be out?"

"I don't really know."

"Huh." Knuckles said as they listened to the chatter. "Looks like the professor isn't teaching any classes right now."

"Hey it works for us." Sonic said. "It means we probably don't have to wait for him to talk to us."

"Well let's go talk to him then." Knuckles said as they walked to the entrance. "The sooner we figure out how to fix the emeralds the better."

"Hey, I have problems of my own I'd like to figure out how to solve." Sonic said with annoyance.

"Right your nightly form, how could I forget?" Knuckles said somewhat sarcastically.

Tails sighed. "Let's just go and visit the professor." He said, not wanting another fight between the two.

They entered the university and followed Tails to where the professor was located. As they walked, Sonic realized that there was a chance that Dar could speak during their visit with the professor, and he didn't want that.

"Okay, can you please be quiet when we're talking to the professor?" Sonic said as quietly as he could so Tails or Knuckles couldn't hear him. "I don't exactly want him to think I'm crazy."

" _Fine."_  Dar said. " _But don't take too long, I get rather bored in here."_

Sonic gave a small sigh of relief. "Thank you."

They eventually entered a hallway, and Tails eventually stopped near the second door to their right. Next to the door was a sign that read,  _Professor Dillon Pickle._

"He should be here." Tails said as he approached it.

He then began to knock. "Professor, are you there?"

There was no response, so Tails knocked again.

"Professor, it's Tails. I need to talk to you about something."

Once again, no one answered the door.

Tails tried to knock again, but Sonic walked over to the door and opened it.

"Sonic." Tails said with some annoyance.

"What?" Sonic asked. "He wasn't answering the door, figured we might as well check just in case."

They entered the office and looked around. The office was empty, with a few books scattered around the floor. The desk was somewhat messy, with some papers piled onto it. The windows that were right of them gave them a view of the outside of the university.

"Huh." Knuckles said looking around. "Doesn't look like the professor is here."

"Maybe he's taking a lunch break." Sonic suggested. "I mean, why wouldn't he be in his office right now?"

"Well then let's go to wherever he's eating and find him." Chip said. "Maybe we can get something to eat."

"That sounds like a good idea Chip." Tails said. "I mean, it's not like he lives in his office."

"You also have a point on getting something to eat." Sonic said. "I'm kind of hungry."

Just when they were about to leave, A man entered the room. He wore a dark green suit, with brown hair. When he spotted them, his face took on a surprised expression, nearly dropping the books he was carrying.

"Uh, you okay mister?" Chip asked.

"Oh, you're not them again." The man said as he calmed down. "You didn't come back for me."

"Are you Professor Pickle?" Knuckles asked the man.

The man shook his head. "No, I'm Kurt, his assistant."

"Well if you're his assistant, can you go to him and tell him we need to talk to him?" Sonic asked.

"I'm afraid I can't do that." Kurt answered. "Because he's been kidnapped."

"WHAT?!" Tails exclaimed with surprise. "Professor Pickle's been kidnapped?"

Kurt nodded. "It was a week before the earthquakes. I was helping him with something he was researching. But then this large man and a whole pack of robots and took him and some of his research."

"That definitely sounds like Eggman." Sonic said. "Who else would come in here and kidnap a professor with robots?"

'Great.' Sonic thought with annoyance. 'The only person that could possibly help us figure out how to fix this situation, and Eggman kidnapped him.'

" _Oh too bad."_ Dar mockingly said. " _Looks like you're gonna be stuck with me for a while longer._ "

'What did I say about being quiet.' Sonic through, groaning in frustration.

Chip however, was beginning to panic. "What a horrible thing to do." He said. "We better rescue this professor guy fast. If he'd been kidnapped for that long he's probably really, really hungry. And I don't think I'd go that long without food, I'd-I'd rather be dead and…."

"Calm down Chip." Sonic said. "I'm sure Eggman is feeding him."

Tails gave a small nod. "Yeah, even he's not that heartless."

Knuckles turned to Kurt. "Do you have any idea where Eggman took him?"

Kurt shook his head. "No, I was too busy hiding behind the desk. I didn't hear anything that might indicate where he took him."

Sonic sighed. "Well, thanks for the information." He said. "We'll be going now."

"You're welcome" Kurt said "I hope you find out where he is and bring him back."

Sonic, Chip, Talis, and Knuckles then left the office.

* * *

Shortly later, they were outside the university.

"We should ask around town." Tails suggested. "Someones bound to at least have seen him."

"That's a good idea Tails." Sonic said. "I think we should split up. We can cover more ground like that."

"Uhhh, sure that sounds good." Tails said, exchanging looks to Knuckles. "Me and Knuckles will go to one part of town, You and Chip can look at another."

Sonic gave a smile and nodded. "Sounds good. I'll let you know if you find something."

"Likewise." Knuckles said.

The two groups went their separate ways and began to walk around the town. However, Tails and Knuckles didn't know the real reason why Sonic decided to split up.

After walking for a bit, Sonic turned to Chip. "Are they gone?" He asked.

Chip looked behind him, and when he didn't see Tails or Knuckles, he nodded to Sonic

Sonic gave a sigh of releif before speaking "Dar, we need to talk."

" _Oh."_ Dar said. " _What is it that you want? Are you going to give me control of you when the sun goes down?"_

"No!" Sonic yelled, exasperated. "I want to talk about last night. Mainly, what you did to me when I was saving Tails."

" _I thought I already explained it."_  Dar said. " _I simply used the energy you absorbed and it had an effect on you. It appeared to make you stronger and more powerful, but made you lose control. A shame you didn't try to kill your friend."_

"Okay, but why though?" Sonic asked. "Why save my life? You said it yourself, I'm not supposed to be in control when the sun goes down, so why did you save my life."

" _You die, I die. Simple as that. I'd much rather keep you alive, as I know that you will eventually succumb to my will."_

Sonic sighed. "Keep telling me that. It's probably not going to happen."

" _It will, you're just denying it."_

Sonic gave out another sigh. "Well, I'm gonna be stuck with you, I'm gonna set some ground rules for you."

" _Do you really think I will follow your rules?"_

"No but I can at least try to control you."

Dar gave a frustrated growl. " _Fine, what are they?"_

"Well first, don't do that power surge thing to me." Sonic said.

" _Really, then what am I supposed to do when your in danger."_ Dar asked, sounding a bit offended.

"Well, I guess you're gonna have me deal with whatever threats we come across at night." Sonic replied. "Two, you're gonna try to be quiet when I talk to my friends."

" _Do you honestly expect me to follow that rule? I get bored without seeing you be tormented by me."_

"Because no one else can hear you." Sonic explained. "And if I try to talk to you in front of my friends, they're gonna think I'm crazy."

" _Fine, I'll try to follow that rule. But I make no promises."_

"Finally, when I'm ready, I'm going to tell my friends about you."

" _Do you really think I will let you tell them about me. Try to do that and I will use that_ _energy you absorb to prevent you from doing so."_

"And what exactly is stopping me from telling them during the day?"

Dar was silent for a few moments at that. " _Well…_ _If you tell them, I'll kill them when I eventually take over you."_

Sonic shook his head. "No you're not, because eventually, they'll have to know, and I'm going to tell them.

"Tell them, what?" An unknown voice suddenly said from behind.

Sonic froze and turned around. Coming face to face with a familiar red and black hedgehog.

"Hello Sonic." Shadow said.

" _Who the hell is this person?"_ Dar asked.

Sonic, surprised by Shadows sudden appearance, smiled nervously and waved his hand at him. "Uh, hi Shadow. Didn't expect you to be here."

"Sonic, why does he look like you?" Chip asked as he looked at Shadow.

Shadow's eyes turned to Chip. "Who is that?"

"Oh." Sonic said, realizing that Chip didn't know who Shadow was. "Shadow, this is Chip."

" _An annoyance._ "

"Please be quiet." Sonic quietly muttered before going back to introducing Shadow to his new friend. "Chip, Shadow."

"Nice to meet you." Chip said flying over to Shadow and pulling out a bar of of chocolate. "Want some chocolate?"

"I'll pass." Shadow said before turning back to Sonic. "What exactly are you doing here, Sonic?"

"Oh well, Me, Tails and Knuckles were gonna ask a friend of Tails about something." Sonic answered. "And he was here in Spagonia."

"Let me guess, that friend was Professor Pickle." Shadow replied.

Sonic looked at Shadow with a surprise. "How did you know?"

"I'm here investigating his disappearance." Shadow explained. "Rouge and Omega are also here, but right now they're interviewing his wife about her last meeting with him. I'm surprised you didn't hear about it."

Sonic gave a shrug. "What can I say, I don't really pay attention to the news often."

Sonic then realized something. "Wait, if the professor disappeared a week before, then why are you investigating it now."

Shadow looked away. "I can't really give full details on that. But when the planet broke, G.U.N began to think the professors disappearance and that were connected."

" _Told you it wouldn't last long."_ Dar said.

"Please be quiet." Sonic said through gritted teeth.

"What did you say Sonic?" Shadow asked.

"Nothing, I didn't say anything." Sonic said waving his hand and nervously grinning.

"Right." Shadow said, slightly concerned.

His eye's then fell on Sonic's bandaged shoulder. "What happened to your shoulder?"

Sonic's eyes widened as he looked down on his shoulder. He didn't realize he hadn't made a cover story for his shoulder just in case anyone asked.

"Oh." Sonic said trying to think of a lie. "Uh, I got attacked by an Eggman robot and it ended up injuring me." He finally said with a nervous smile.

Shadow didn't look convinced.

" _That was a terrible lie."_  Dar said.

"Fine." Sonic said frustrated. "I got attacked by an animal and it bit my shoulder."

"I see." Shadow said, still not exactly convinced that was the truth, but somewhat buying the explanation.

" _He still doesn't buy it._ "

"SHUT UP PLEASE!" Sonic said through gritted teeth.

Shadow was taken aback by the outburst. "Sonic, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Sonic said defensively before turning to Chip. "Come on, let's check on Tails and Knuckles to see if they've found anything."

As Sonic walked away, Shadow watched as Sonic talked to himself.

"That was a friend of mine. Okay, he did try to kill me when I first met him, but he's okay with me now." He said.

There was a moment of silence before Sonic yelled out "WILL YOU PLEASE STOP TELLING ME TO MURDER MY FRIENDS?"

Just then Shadow heard the door next to him open. Turning, he saw Rouge and Omega exiting the building.

"Did you find out anything from his wife?"

"Negative." Omega stated. "We gained no new information."

Rouge sighed. "We did find out the professor was researching something known as the Gaia Manuscripts, though we don't know how much that connects to his disappearance yet." She explained.

She then brought up a device and looked at a list. "Judging from that, I'd say we interview his assistant, Kurt. He might have info on what these manuscripts are."

She then turned to Shadow. "Did anything happen while I was interviewing? I thought I heard screaming outside."

"I ended up running into Sonic." Shadow explained.

"Ah. Do you know why he was yelling?"

Shadow looked back at where Sonic had walked away. "To be honest, I don't really know."

"Well, we still have a job to do. Let's head to the university." Rouge replied.

With that, the trio headed in the direction the university was.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sonic and Chip were exiting an alley they were walking through.

"Did you see how Shadow reacted?" Sonic angrily said to Dar. "He probably thought I was crazy."

" _Oh I don't know, I just found it entertaining._ " Dar replied with glee.

Sonic gave a frustrated sigh. "Of course you did." He said under his breath.

"Are you going to be alright Sonic?" Chip asked. "You seemed to get pretty angry at Dar."

"I'll be alright Chip." Sonic replied. "I just need find a way to deal with Dar while talking to my friends. Since it's obviously not going to follow the no talking rule."

Just as he exited the alley, he saw Tails and Knuckles running up to him.

"Hey guys." Sonic said as they stopped in front of him. "Found anything on where Eggman might've taken the professor?"

"Yes actually." Tails said. "We talked to a kid who said he witnessed robots and what appears to be Eggman carrying the professor a week before the earthquakes. He overheard them saying that they're taking him somewhere to Mazuri."

"Mazuri huh?" Sonic replied, rubbing his chin. "I think I recall Eggman having a couple bases there. When can we head out there?"

"Well, once we found out the information, we went to find you so we could go." Knuckles answered. "So, right now."

Sonic gave a smirk. "Excellent, then let's rescue this professor."

The group then ran out of town and towards the Tornado outside the town.

* * *

They arrived in Mazuri hours latter. By the time Tails had landed the plane, the sun was almost down.

"Okay, there should be near a village nearby in that direction." Tails said pointing east of where they are. "Maybe we can ask around if they've seen something that looks like an Eggman base."

"Yeah, we can do that." Sonic said. "As soon as I find out where it is, we can fly to it and I can save the professor."

Just as he finished the sentence though, the sun fully set and Sonic felt a familiar pain begin.

Tails noticed Sonic's change in expression. "Uh Sonic?"

"One moment please." Sonic said, giving a nervous grin at Tails as his fur began to darken and lengthen.

Using whatever speed he had left, he dashed behind a rock and continued to transform, Chip flying to him. As he did so, Tails and Knuckles watched as they listened to Sonic transform into his monster form. His grunts becoming deeper, and listening to the tearing of his gloves, shoes, and the bandages that were on him. Eventually, they heard him emit a howl.

"AWOOOOOOO"

There was silence after that, and Tails and Knuckles went to the rock to check on Sonic. They found him in his monster form, breathing heavily from exhaustion thanks to his transformation. The torn remains of his gloves, bandages, and part of his shoes lying on the ground.

"You okay Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

Sonic looked up at the two. "Not really." He said quietly. "I just need to get used to turning into this every night."

He grabbed the edge of the rock to lift himself up on his feet before looking at his hand. "Though, now that I'm like this, I'm scared of going to the village."

"Why, afraid people might see you without your good looks?" Knuckles asked somewhat sarcastically.

Sonic opened his mouth to retort, but then closed it and lowered his head. "Yeah. I'm just afraid people will think I'm a monster like this."

"Well, just try your best to talk to them." Tails said, trying to reassure his brother. "They might be surprised at your appearance at first, but they'll probably see that you're perfectly friendly."

Sonic gave a small smile. "Thanks Tails, I'll keep that in mind."

"Remember, We'll be ready to go as soon as you find out where that base is." Tails said.

Sonic nodded and going on all fours, dashed towards the direction of the village with Chip behind him.


	8. Infiltrating The Base

Sonic ran through the Mazuri savanna on all fours, with Chip flying right next to him.

"How much further do we have to go?" Chip asked. "I'm becoming exhausted."

"Hopefully we're close." Sonic answered. "The sooner we figure out where the base that's holding the professor is, the better."

"I sure hope he's okay." Chip said. "I'm not worried that he's starving anymore, but that Eggman person might still be doing horrible things to him."

"Calm down Chip, I don't think he's the kind of person who would torture someone like him." Sonic said.

'At least I hope not.' He secretly thought to himself, thinking of what happened on Eggman's space station.

" _Do you honestly think the professor is still alive?_ " Dar asked. " _This Eggman person,_ _whoever he is, probably killed him the moment he got the information he needed._ "

"He wouldn't do a thing like that." Sonic said quietly. "You just haven't met him yet."

" _Oh, but how do you explain him launching you into space?_ _It sure seemed like he intended to kill you afte_ _r he broke the planet and released my master._ "

Sonic flinched for a moment. He never thought about Eggman's intentions when he launched him into space. Did he plan on killing him once he was done draining the Chaos Emeralds? From what he saw of the earth, it was clear he counted on him dying from the fall.

If it weren't that green sphere that appeared as he fell, he probably would have died.

" _Ah, so he might_ _be willing to kill at all."_

"Shut up." Sonic growled, trying to not think of the matter. The professor had to be alive.

"Sonic, look." Chip said, stopping and pointing in his direction.

Sonic skidded to a halt and stared at what Chip was pointing at.

Not far from them, they saw a small village. There was a small fence around it with a gate like entrance that had no door. Beyond that, they saw a few small stone buildings with what looked like hay for the roofs. At the end of the village, they saw a large tree that seemed to tower over the village.

"Guess this was the village Tails was talking about." Sonic said.

"You think they know where that professor might be?" Chip asked.

"Let's hope so." Sonic answered.

"But Sonic, aren't you worried about…." Chip began to ask.

"I'm trying not to think about it." Sonic interrupted with some frustration in his voice. "It's the last thing I need to in my mind right now."

Sonic looked back at the village. Internally, he was nervous of going to the village. He was unsure of how others would react to him in his monster form. If they didn't react well to him, it would mean waiting until day to ask around, and he didn't want to keep the professor waiting any longer.

He dug his claws into the ground in frustration. 'Just get in there. You have no idea how they'll react until you arrive.' He thought to himself.

He then looked down at his hands, realizing he was sitting on all fours. 'But if I'm going to talk to whoever is there, I'm not going to walk around like an animal.'

He then slowly got up in a standing position. It was difficult thanks to his transformed feet, and the added weight from his now bulky top half. Eventually, he managed to stand in a slightly hunched position.

"Come on." He said, turning his head to Chip. "Let's go figure out where that professor is."

They then began to head towards the village, with Sonic having to walk behind Chip in order to not trip over himself.

" _Oh I hope the_ _villagers are_ _afraid of you."_ Dar said with some delight in it's voice as they walked towards the village

Sonic sighed. "You're just determined to see me miserable aren't you?" He asked.

" _It's one of the few things that keep me entertained."_

Sonic and Chip eventually reached the entrance of the village. Just before they entered, Sonic stopped, staring at the village ahead.

'Well.' He thought to himself. 'Here goes nothing.'

He then walked through the gate and into the village. He looked around as he walked around. He saw the villagers walking around, going about their regular business. Not aware of the new threat that emerged at night. He saw the tree at the end of the village was apparently hollowed out, and appeared to contain a store.

"Wow, this village looks smaller then the previous two towns we were in." Chip said as he looked around.

"Well you can't expect everywhere we go to be big." Sonic replied.

'Still, judging from the size, it shouldn't take too long to ask everyone here.' He thought.

His eyes soon feel on a woman who was watching a kid who was appeared to playing with a ball by herself. Looking at the, Sonic figured those two would probably be the best two to start with.

He began to walk towards the two, with Chip flying next to him. The girl continued to play with the ball. However, she then threw the ball a bit too hard and it flew away from her, much to her disappointment.

The ball landed a couple of inches away form Sonic, who noticed the girls sad look. Hoping he could at least cheer the girl back up, he picked up the ball, and gently rolled it back towards her.

The girl, noticing the ball return to her, turned her head to see who returned it. Seeing a large creature standing a few feet away with a wolf like tail, claws, and teeth.

Sonic gave a nervous smile and gave a small wave at her. In response, the girl let out a small "Eek" and hid behind a sheet that was hanging on the building next to her.

Sonic's smile immediately faded, and he let out a sad sigh.

"Don't let that bother you. She's usually shy around others." A voice said.

Sonic turned and saw that the woman was talking to him.

"Is that your daughter?" He asked pointing to her.

She nodded. "Still, I don't blame her for reacting like that to you." She said as she looked at him. "Do you even manicure your nails? And do you have any other shoes that fit you?"

Sonic let out a small groan and placed his hand over his face. "Look, I don't usually look like this. I just turn into this every night." He explained.

"Oh." The mother said, surprised. "Then what do you really look like?"

Sonic sighed. "Look, I didn't mean to scare your daughter. I just wanted to ask you some questions."

"I knew that you didn't mean to scare her." The mother replied. "But what did you want to ask me?"

"Did you happen to hear or see anything unusual in the past week or so?" Sonic asked.

The mother thought about it. "Well, I did hear some strange noises when I was in the house for the past few nights. And I think I heard something about a week ago, but I didn't really go out to investigate."

"Oh." Sonic said, disappointed with the answer he got. "Well, thanks for telling me."

Sonic then began to walk away from the mother. As he did, he could hear her say. "Don't worry, that creature didn't mean any harm to you."

He decided that he should ask someone else. There had to be someone who could give him an idea of where the professor might be.

He then heard someone giggling. For a moment, he presumed it was Chip because of how close he was to him, but when he turned towards him, he wasn't hovering next to him. In fact, he was as confused as he was right now.

He eventually found the source of the giggling, which was a man that wasn't far from them. The odd thing was that no one else was there with him, he seemed to just be giggling to himself.

Sonic and Chip exchanged glances. "You think he knows where the professor is?" Chip asked.

"Well it won't hurt to ask him." Sonic answered.

They walked over to the man. As he got closer to the man, he began to get a weird feeling that got stronger. He began to realize that the feeling he was having was similar to when he saw that ice cream man back at Apotos.

"Uh sir. We need to talk to you." Chip said once they were close enough to the man.

The man let out a small giggle. "Sure." He said. "What do you want?"

"Uh, we're looking for a professor. Did you happen to see anything odd this past week?" Sonic asked.

"Oh looking for someone special eh." The man said in between giggles. "Well I haven't seen anything or anyone like that."

"Uh, you sure you okay?" Chip asked, somewhat concerned.

"Oh don't worry about me. I've just been blessed by some spirits." The man said before giggling once again.

"Um, Okay, thanks for telling us anyway." Sonic said waving goodbye to the man.

As he walked away, he took one last look at the man.

"I'm guessing that your master probably has something to do with this strange behavior." He quietly said to Dar.

" _Why would you ask that? I certainly have nothing to do with it."_ Dar asked in a fake sounding innocent voice.

Sonic gave out a sigh. He knew Dar probably wasn't gonna give him a straight answer to his question, so he figured it was better to just focus on figuring out where the professor was.

'There's not many people left to ask.' Sonic thought as he looked around. 'If no one knows where the professor might be, Tails might have to fly to another village to ask around.'

He turned to talk to Chip, but found that he was gone again.

"I seriously need to keep a better eye on him." He grumbled as he looked around.

He managed to find him quickly, seeing Chip talk to a man just outside of the tree store.

Thanks to his better hearing in his monster form, he could hear what they were talking about.

"I'm sorry but I'm closed for the night." The man said

"But isn't a store like this supposed to be open, even at this time?" Chip asked.

"Yes, but due to recent events I need to close it down earlier." The Shopkeeper explained.

Sonic then went up to the two. The shopkeeper noticed him and turned to him. "Excuse me, does this creature belong to you?"

"Uh, yeah he does." Sonic said, stretching his arm to grab Chip and pulling him back towards him.

"Well tell him that until further notice, the shop is closed at night." The shopkeeper angrily said. "I've heard rumors of creatures emerging at night, and I don't need anymore stress at night to go with whatever is going on in that building not far from our village."

Sonic turned to the shopkeeper in surprise. "What did you say about a building?"

The shopkeeper sighed. "About a week ago, this building a few miles away from the village became active. I don't know what's going on in there, but I suspect nothing good's going on there."

It didn't take Sonic long to figure out the purpose of the building and he ran off with Chip not far behind him.

Getting the communicator around his leg out. He pressed the button and not long after, Tails' voice came though.

"Sonic is that you?"

"Tails, I might have an idea of where the professor might be held."

* * *

After a small flight on the Tornado, Sonic, Chip, Tails, and Knuckles found themselves perched on a hill, staring at the base that supposedly held the professor.

The building looked like it was made of Metal, with a tower coming out right in the center. It also looked like parts of it were covered in stone to try and make it blend in with the surroundings. On top of all that, it was surrounded by a wall that only had one visible entrance, and was being patrolled by two robots.

"Well, it looks like the professor is here." Tails said observing the base through binoculars. "Aside from the robots outside the gate, I see several more patrolling from the inside of the wall."

"Looks like Eggman wants to make sure the professor stays in his grasp." Sonic said.

"Still, if it's just the robots, I think we can take them pretty easily." Knuckles said. "Especially with Sonic in his monster form."

"Gee, thanks Knuckles." Sonic grumbled.

Just then Tails spotted something. On the ground near the base, he spotted puddles of purple smoke, similar to the ones he saw in Apotos, appearing. Shortly after, creatures began to emerge from it.

Tails saw that it was the same creatures they encountered in Apotos. Observing further, he saw that when the robots spotted the creatures, they didn't attack them, continued patrolling.

"Guy's, you better come look at this." Tails said.

Sonic, Knuckles, and Chip went over and saw what Tails saw.

"It's more of those scary creatures." Chip said terrified.

"What were you saying about taking them Knuckles?" Sonic asked.

"Oh shut up." Knuckles muttered.

"Why aren't they attacking each other though?" Tails wondered. "Did Eggman order his robots not to attack them? If so, why aren't the creatures attacking the robots?"

"Does it really matter?" Sonic asked. "They're standing in our way of the professor so I'm just gonna take them out."

'Tails does have a point though.' Sonic thought. 'Why aren't these creatures attacking Eggman's robots?'

" _If you think that I have an answer to that question. I'm sorry to disappoint that I don't have one."_  He heard Dar say.

Sonic gave a sigh before turning to Tails and Knuckles. "You guys stay here. I'll handle the robots and creatures."

"What?" Tails asked in surprise. "You're just gonna do it by yourself?"

"Yeah Sonic, we can handle ourselves too." Knuckles added. "You don't have to do this alone."

"Well it didn't look like you could handle those creatures back at Apotos." Sonic argued. "In fact, I think if I hadn't shown up, you probably would've died."

"Sonic, we now have an idea of what we're facing. I think we're a bit more prepared right now." Tails said.

"Look, I don't want you to get hurt by them." Sonic protested. "You're much safer here."

'That and I don't want to accidentally harm any of you.' Sonic thought, thinking back to his blackout when he saved Tails in Apotos.

Tails gave a frustrated sigh. "Okay, we'll stay here, but how will we know when it's clear?"

"I'll figure something out." Sonic replied.

"Well go clear the base then." Knuckles said. "It's not gonna clear itself."

Chip then flew up to Sonic. "What about me Sonic, Can I come too?"

"No, you need to stay here too." Sonic answered before turning back to Tails and Knuckles. "I'll give you the signal when it's safe for you to enter."

He then turned towards the base and ran towards it on all fours.

" _Do you think that_ _by leaving them behind while you fight is going to protect them?"_  Dar asked.

"It's the only way I can prevent them from getting accidentally injured by me." Sonic protested.

" _But you must have forgotten that my masters minions can appear anywhere. So they're still not safe. And what will you do when I finally take control of you?"_

Sonic gave off a frustrated growl, angry at forgetting that fact, and annoyed with Dar. "Can you please just shut up?" He said.

" _No._ "

Sonic did his best to ignore Dar, he was getting close to the entrance and he needed to focus.

He saw the Dark Gaia creature that was just outside of the gate was turning to him. Before it had a chance to react, Sonic dashed towards it on all fours before pouncing on it. He then slashed at it with his claws until it stopped moving.

Hearing the sound of a robots coming closer to him. Turning, he saw that Eggman robots were charging towards him. Clenching one of his hands into a fist, he stretched his arm at one of them. The fist punched a hole right through the robot, causing it to wobble for a bit before collapsing.

Noticing the dark gaia creature hadn't dissolved yet, he tossed it at the other robot, temporarily stunning it. He then charged towards it and slashed at it, the claws cutting the metal like tissue paper. He slashed at it a few more times before punching through it, deactivating it.

Sonic took a few deep breaths before looking at his hand, which was now stained with oil from the robots. Compared to the Dark Gaia creatures, he felt far better when destroying Eggman's robots, mainly since he had to deal with them most of time time. But he was still unsettled by the brutal and almost savage methods he had to use to defeat them.

Sonic shook his head. 'Focus.' He thought. 'You need to clear out the rest of the robots and creatures so the professor can be saved.'

Turning towards the open gate, he rushed towards it and not long after, he spotted a few more robots and creatures. He didn't wait for them to notice him as he started slashing at them with his claws, spinning around and stretching his arms to cover as much ground as he could.

The robots were quickly shredded to pieces in the whirlwind, bits of their metal falling to the ground. A couple of the creatures managed to survive, but they still got cut by his claws.

Grabbing one of the creatures, Sonic slammed it on the ground multiple times before tossing it at a wall. One of the creatures lunged at him, but Sonic noticed it just in time and grabbed it's hands. For a while, they both struggled against each other, with the creature screeching constantly.

"Oh will you shut up?" Sonic angrily said just before he punched the creature in the face, stunning it.

He then tossed the creature in the air before stretching one of his arms to slam it back to the ground. He then ran to the creature and slashed at it one more time with his claws.

With that, all the robots and creatures in the area he was in were gone.

'Great, a few enemies down, however more there are to go.' Sonic thought to himself, looking around at his work.

"That was pretty amazing." A voice behind him suddenly said.

Surprised, Sonic turned around and saw Chip not far from him. Looking at the destruction.

"You just went in and destroyed all those robots and scary creatures, spinning around and slashing them, and then slamming them into the ground." He said, mimicking the movements as he did so."

"Chip, what are you doing here?" Sonic asked, surprised.

"I just wanted to see if you were doing alright." Chip answered. "I was afraid you might've gotten hurt by those robots and creatures."

"But I told you to say where Tails and Knuckles are." Sonic said. "It's not safe here."

"I'll try to stay out of trouble, I promise." Chip said. "If more of those bad guys show up, I'll find a place to hide and wait until you're done dealing with them."

" _I hope he's bad at finding hiding spots._ " Sonic heard Dar say. " _That way, my masters creatures, or one of those robots can find and kill him._ "

Sonic clenched his fist in frustration. He didn't want Chip to get injured, but at the same time, Chip probably wasn't going to do what he told him, so trying to talk him back into back to Tails and Knuckles wasn't going to work. Not only that, but he needed to rescue the professor, and he didn't want to put that off any longer then he should.

He gave a frustrated sigh. "Fine, you can stay with me, but try to stay out of the way if I start fighting."

Chip's eyes widened. "Really?" He asked.

Sonic begrudgingly nodded. "Now come on, we still need to clear out this place."

Sonic looked up at one of the stone buildings that surrounded the tower. He needed to find a good vantage point to see how many robots or creatures he had to deal with before he could let Tails and Knuckles know it's safe to enter.

He eventually saw one that looked high enough to give him a good view of the rest of the base.

"Chip, hang onto my back." He said.

Chip flew towards him and Sonic felt him grip the fur on his back. Looking back, Chip gave him a nod and a thumbs up.

Looking back at the building, Sonic brought his arm back before stretching it towards the building. The arm flew towards the ledge at the top of the building.

And missed entirely, going over the ledge by a few inches.

His arm then came back towards him and before he had time to react, the back of his hand met the front of his face.

He stumbled back, clutching his muzzle while groaning in pain.

"Sonic!" Chip said in both surprise and worry. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." Sonic said, his voice slightly muffled thanks to the hands around his muzzle. "It just looks like I need more practice with these arms."

Dar meanwhile, was laughing. " _Oh man. That was by far the most entertaining then I've seen since I found myself inside you. I hope that happens"_

Sonic let go of his muzzle, his nose bleeding slightly. After he wiped some of the blood away, he looked back at the building.

Bringing his arm back again he stared at the ledge that was in view of the building.

'Focus.' He thought to himself.

He threw his arm forward again, the arm also stretching. It flew towards the ledge and just as the hand was close to the ledge, he grabbed it.

Now that he had grabbed the ledge, he felt himself flying towards it as his arm began to return to it's normal length.

Once he was close to the ledge, he grabbed the ledge with his other hand and brought himself up.

Perching himself on the edge, he observed the base around him. He saw the various robots and creatures that were patrolling the area. As he was watching, he counted them.

He saw about 4 robots, and two of the Dark Gaia creatures in front of where he was standing. Looking left, he saw about 2 creatures and two robots walking around. Finally to the right, there was a 4 creatures and 4 robots.

"How many of them are there Sonic?" Chip asked.

"There are about 16 more that I need to deal with." Sonic answered.

"You can take them right?" Chip asked, slightly concerned. "After all, you said you've been through worse."

Sonic didn't answer. While it was true that he had faced enemies in larger numbers, that was when he was in his usual speedy form. And while he didn't doubt that he could take them like this judging from his experiences so far, he remembered he nearly got overwhelmed back in Apotos.

But he knew he had to try, he needed to save the professor so he could figure out how to fix the planet.

"I can take them." Sonic finally said.

He then leaped down the ledge and as he fell, he saw a pole and stretched one of arms towards it. He grabbed it and begun to swing towards the first area.

Eventually, he saw a robot just ahead. Using the momentum from swinging, he leaped towards it, landing on the top of the robot.

As the robot tried to get him off, the other robots and creatures noticing as it did so, Sonic grabbed the head of the robot and ripped it off, instantly deactivating it.

Landing on the ground, he stretched one of his arms towards one of the robots, punching right though it. With his arm still in the robot, he swung it towards another robot, knocking it to the ground.

He then heard one of the creatures rushing towards him. Just as it began to leap towards him, Sonic grabbed it's neck and slammed it onto the ground multiple times.

He heard the hiss of the other creature behind him. He turned towards it, tossing the other creature towards it before dashing forwards on all fours while the creature was stunned. He pounced on it and gave it a slash to it''s head. The two creatures dissolved afterwards, their leftover energies going into Sonic.

Turning back to the last two robots, he saw that the robot he knocked over had gotten up and a robot that was on the right of it was getting ready to attack him with a club like weapon.

He ran towards the robots, slashing the one on the left just as it finished getting up. The robot wobbled for a moment before Sonic gave it another slash upwards, finally deactivating it.

The robot with the club raised it upwards, prepared to strike Sonic. But Sonic managed to notice and dodge it before it did so. Sonic countered by punching a hole through the robot.

'One area down, two to go.' Sonic thought to himself.

Running back, he stretched his arm towards a wall, and lifted himself over it, landing in front of the robots and creatures. He quickly grabbed one of the creatures and slammed it against the wall before giving it a slash on it's neck.

He then stretched his arm towards one of the robots, grabbing it's head and ripping it off before tossing it at the other robot, who caught the head in it's hands.

While it was distracted, Sonic charged at it. However, he forgot about the other creature, which tackled him from the side. The two rolled around, struggling with each other before Sonic managed to pin the creature to the ground and punched it multiple times until it stopped moving.

Turning back to the robot, who had dropped the other robots head, he slashed at the robot with his claws, before leaping up and using one of his fists to slam down onto the robots head. The impact causing the robots head to sink into it's body.

Hearing a pained screech, he looked back and saw that the dark gaia creature he slammed into the wall earlier was still alive and struggling to get up. Sonic soon rectified that by stretching his fist at the creature, causing it to hit the wall again before dissolving.

'One more to go.' Sonic thought.

Heading towards the last area, he stretched his arms to climb on the buildings, running across the roofs and leaping across them.

Just before he leapt down, he took one last chance to observe what awaited for him below.

Now that he was a bit closer, he saw that a couple of the robots had shields, no doubt to protect from attacks. The robots were also wielding similar clubs to the robots he had encountered previously.

"This is probably going to be difficult." Sonic quietly said to himself. "There's a lot more of them compared to the previous areas."

" _You know, I could give you that energy boost I gave you back at Apotos._ " Dar suggested.

"And lose control of myself? Yeah right" Sonic replied. "And didn't I tell you your not allowed to do that?"

" _Why can't you trust me?_ " Dar asked.  _"All I'm doing is trying to not get you killed."_

"Because you want to take over me and kill my friends." Sonic answered. "You'll probably try to use that power boost as a way to try and control me."

" _F_ _ine."_ Dar said with frustration. " _But if you_ _are about to get killed, I'll give you that boost. Regardless of your refusal."_

Sonic sighed. "Well lets hope that doesn't happen."

He then leaped down and landed on the ground. Catching the robots and dark gaia creatures attention as they turned to him.

'Gotta take out the robots with the shields first.' Sonic thought as he stared at them.

Stretching his arm, he attempted to slash his claws at them, but the robots immediately deployed their shields, causing his claws to bounce harmlessly off them.

'Okay this isn't good. Gotta find a way to attack them from behind.'

He attempted to run towards them in order to leap over them. But in his focus on the robots, he forgot he also had to deal with the Dark Gaia creatures and one of them pounced on him, knocking him to the ground.

Sonic grabbed it's head as it struggled to attack him and tried to get the creature off of him, but the creature appeared to be stronger then the others. Eventually he used his claws to slash at the creatures eyes. The creature screeched as it clutched it's eye in pain before Sonic finished it off with another slash to it's head.

Just as he got up however, he was hit in the back with one of the robot's club, knocking him back onto the ground. The rest of the robots soon joined and started to beat him.

Sonic tried to get up, but the force of the clubs kept forcing him back onto the ground.

" _Oh dear, it looks like you need some help._ " Dar said somewhat sarcastically. " _If only I had some way of helping you._ "

"I don't need your help." Sonic said through gritted teeth.

"Sonic, get up please! Don't let them get the better of you!" Sonic heard Chip yell from a distance.

" _You better do what that annoyance tells you to do._ "

"Shut up." Sonic said as he saw that his vision was getting blurry. But he could clearly see that the Dark Gaia creatures were about to join in as well.

" _Oh well, looks like I'm gonna need to give you that boost."_

"NO NO WAIT…!"

But it was too late, Sonic's eye's began to glow yellow. He then then slammed both of his fists into the robots surrounding him, letting out a roar as he did so.

As the robots tried to get back up, Sonic grabbed the leg of one of the robots and began to slam it against the other robots and creatures. Knocking them to the ground. He then spun the robot he was holding around and tossed it against a wall.

Turning back to the remaining robots and creatures, he saw that one of the robots was trying to pick up it's shield. Sonic ran to it on all fours and picked it up before the robot could do so.

Giving the robot a grin, showing it his fangs, he brought the pointy end of the shield down on the robot, impaling it. The robot twitched a bit before it deactivated.

He then turned to one of the creatures that was rushing to attack him and pounced on it before it had a chance to do so. He then slashed it at it's neck, killing it instantly.

Hearing metallic noises coming closer to him, Sonic turned and saw that one of the robots had picked up it's club and was about to strike with it.

Sonic grabbed the arm with the club and ripped it off the robot. As the robot tried to grab it's now nonexistent arm, Sonic grabbed it's head and crushed it.

Spotting one of the creatures attempting to flee, he stretched on of his arms, grabbed it's leg and began to drag it back towards him. The creature dried to desperately get away, but it was no use. Once it was close enough Sonic gave it a strong punch to it's head, causing it to stop moving.

Just then, Sonic was knocked to the ground again. Looking back, he saw that one of the robots had managed to pick it's shield and club and was prepared to strike again.

Sonic lunged at the robot, savagely scratching the shield as he tried to attack the robot itself. The robot responded by hitting Sonic with the club, knocking him aside.

As Sonic got back up, he spotted the robots leg. He instantly stretched his arm to grab the leg before he ripped it off, causing the robot to fall to the ground.

As the robot tried to crawl away, Sonic walked up to it and punched right through it with his fist, deactivating it.

Hearing one last screech, he turned and saw the last Dark Gaia creature leap towards him. However, he sliced at it just before it landed, dissolving harmlessly in the air.

With all the creatures and robots supposedly dead, Sonic took a few deep breaths. Then he heard a faint whirling noise.

Turning around, he saw that the robot he had tossed at the wall was still functioning, but just barely. Sonic walked up to it, and then grabbed it's head and ripped it off.

Immediately after that, he let out a grunt and shut his eyes, putting his hand to his forehead. When he opened his eyes again, they had returned to their normal green.

Sonic looked around at the destruction, seeing the destroyed robots and bits of metal on the ground. He found his arms covered in oil from punching through them, and saw the head of the last robot, dropping it.

" _What did I tell you?_ " Dar said, somewhat smug.

"Did you really have to do that?" Sonic asked.

" _You would've died if I didn't do that."_ Dar answered.

Sonic gave a frustrated sigh. "Fine, you're allowed to give me that power boost, but only in emergencies and with my approval."

"Sonic, are you okay? Is it safe to come out?"

Sonic turned and saw Chip hiding behind a couple of pots.

"Yeah, it's safe now." Sonic replied.

Chip got out and looked around the area. "Wow, you really made sure those creatures and robots don't come back."

"Yeah, I sure did." Sonic said.

'Even if I don't really recall it.' Sonic thought.

Just then Chip noticed something. "Sonic look." He said pointing at what he saw

Sonic turned and saw what Chip was pointing at.

It was a large metal door with a button next to it. Looking up, Sonic saw it was connected to the tower.

"Look's like this is the entrance." Sonic said.

"That's good right?" Chip asked. "You found the entrance and cleared all the creatures and robots out right? All you need to do is signal your friends that it's clear.

Sonic flinched slightly. In the chaos of clearing out the base, he didn't think of a way to signal Tails and Knuckles.

Looking around, he saw the remains of the robots. Looking at them, a small idea came to mind.

He approached one of the fallen robots and ripped off it's arms. He then grabbed the shield that was impaled in the robot and removed it.

* * *

Meanwhile, Knuckles was keeping watch of the base. Tails had decided to rest for a bit and Chip flown off, leaving him to wait for Sonic's signal.

As he waited for it, he thought about what happened to the Chaos Emeralds, and what caused them to be drained. He was still angry at Sonic for having them end up like this. Sonic should have known that Eggman's supposed invasion was a trap to allow Eggman to drain the emeralds and break the planet. He felt that Sonic brought his monster form on himself for falling into his trap.

'I should have let those emeralds stay on Angel Island.' He thought to himself. 'That way none of this would've happened.'

However, he wondered if it still

Just then he spotted something from the base. Looking through the binoculars, he saw that it was a shield with a robotic arm sticking out from the top.

'Guess that's the signal.' He thought.

Putting the binoculars away, he went over to Tails and shook him awake.

"What is it?" Tails said, sounding slightly tired.

"I think I saw Sonic's signal." Knuckles replied. "It should be clear."

Tails got up and the two ran towards the base. As they ran to where Sonic was, they passed by the remains of the destruction caused.

"Didn't really think Sonic was capable of this." Knuckles said as he looked at the remains of a robot.

"Me neither." Tails replied. "His new form must've made him change his fighting style."

'Okay, definitely don't piss him of when he's like this.' Knuckles thought to himself.

They eventually reached to where Sonic was. They found him leaning against a door with Chip hovering next to him.

"Took you long enough." Sonic replied.

"We got your signal." Tails said. "It was certainly….creative."

"I had to think of something." Sonic replied.

They then turned to the door. "I think this might be the entrance to the base."

"Only one way to find out." Knuckles said, slamming his fist on the button next to it.

Almost immediately, the door opened, revealing a large hallway.

"Are there gonna anymore robots in there?" Chip asked.

"If there are, we can take them." Knuckles replied.

Tails nodded. "Yeah, we've dealt with them multiple times."

They then ran into the base.

'Let's hope the professor is still here.' Sonic thought.


	9. The Gaia Manuscripts

The group ran through the hallway of the base. They had been running for a couple of minutes, but kept a lookout for doors that might lead to the professor.

The hallway was oddly barren, with no doors that could lead to anywhere else. In addition, they found no robots patrolling the hallway, not even a bee bot.

'I don't like this.' Sonic thought as he ran. 'Why would Eggman put robots outside his base but none inside?'

Eventually however, they reached the end of the hall, represented by a large door similar to the one at the entrance of the base.

"Looks like this is where the professor is being held." Tails said as they stared at the door.

"It better be." Knuckles replied. "It's the only other door in this base."

"But how do we know this is where he is?" Chip asked. "Should we knock just to make sure?"

In response, Sonic walked over to the door and banged on it a few times, leaving a small dent in the door. He then waited for a few seconds for a response, but got none.

"Well, looks like there's only one way we'll find out." He said

Tails then went over to the doors control panel. Seeing that it was a keypad, he took out his tablet and took a small photo of it. Looking at the photo for a few moments, he watched as the tablet analyzed the keypad, highlighting fingerprints on a few of the buttons. The highlighted numbers then split up and listed all the possible combinations.

"Okay, let's hope Eggman didn't program this to set off an alarm if I get the wrong code." Tails said as he started to input the first possible combination.

After a few seconds, the light above the keypad turned green and the door opened. They then walked into the room, remaining cautious as they observed their surroundings.

The room appeared to be circular with walls that were colored orange. It was barren except for a large vault door that was on the other end of where they were standing

Chip then spotted something. "Hey, who's that up there?" He asked pointing upwards.

Everyone looked up and on a platform surrounded by a glass wall, they saw a man sitting down holding what looked like a sandwich. The man was wearing a brown suit with a red tie around his neck. He was also old with gray hair and bushy eyebrows that seemed to obstruct his eyes. Sonic could also hear him muttering in distaste thanks to his enhanced hearing.

"That's the professor." Tails said, recognizing the mans appearance.

Using his tails, he flew his way up to where the professor was, with Chip following behind him.

"Hey, professor." Tails said as he tapped the glass, trying to get the professors attention. "Can you hear me?"

"Can you believe they call this culinary concoction food." The professor said before standing up and walking over to Tails and waved the sandwich at him. "Do you see this sorry excuse for a sandwich? The bread should be no less then 3/4th's of an inch thick. Upon it, one tablespoon of mayonnaise and a pinch of black pepper. Finally, the contents should be fresh cucumber, sliced thinly if you please."

He then gave a smile. "Isn't that right Tails?"

Tails and Chip exchanged glances at each other in slight confusion. "Well, I certainly learned something today."

Sonic and Knuckles had also heard what the professor said and were equally confused. "This is the guy who's supposed to tell us how to fix the planet?" Knuckled asked.

Tails sighed. "It's nice to see you haven't changed professor."

"I'm glad that you're here too Tails." The professor replied. "But what brings you all the way here? It's certainly not because of the menu."

"No professor." Tails replied as he flew to a button that was on the side of the cell. "We're here to rescue you."

He then pressed the button and the floor of the cell began to lower down to the floor, with a staircase coming out as it descended.

"Oh I see, how rude of me. I should have known that's what you were here for." The professor said as he descended down the steps. "But first I need to visit the chef and teach him how to make a proper sandwich."

Tails ran in front of the professor to stop him. "You can file a complaint later professor."

"Let's get out of here before Eggman finds out we're here and sends the welcoming committee." Sonic said.

"Ah yes, but please be sure to collect the contents of what's in that vault." The professor said as he pointed to the vault.

Sonic nodded before turning to Tails and Chip. "Tails, Chip, get the professor to the plane."

"But what about you and Knuckles?" Tails asked.

"We'll get whats in that vault and catch up with you." Sonic replied. "Just go."

Tails hesitated for a couple of seconds before nodding and grabbing the professor's hand. "Come on professor, let's get you to safety."

"I look forward to returning to Spagonia." The professor said. "I need a proper meal after all those terrible sandwiches."

Chip then brought out a bar of chocolate. "Want some Chocolate professor?"

"Ah, don't mind if I do." The professor said as he grabbed the bar.

Sonic and Knuckles exchanged glances and shrugged before going to the vault to inspect it.

"See anything that could open this vault." Sonic asked as he looked at the vault.

"No." Knuckles replied as he scanned the walls around it. "Doesn't appear to be any keypads, button's or levers that would open this thing."

"Well how are we supposed to open it then?" Sonic asked

"I don't know!" Knuckled replied, annoyed. "I don't think I can rip the door off given the size of it."

Just then, an idea came to Sonic. He took a look at his hand and then at the door.

"Knuckles, you might want to step back." He said.

"Um, okay." Kncukles said, a bit confused as he stepped away from the vault.

Sonic walked backwards a bit and once he was a fair distance away from the vault door, he pulled back his arm and clenched his hand into a fist.

He then threw his arm forward. The arm stretched and his fist hit the door. The impact of his fist both left a massive dent in the door, and caused it to become unhinged. The door then fell to the floor, leaving the vault open. An alarm then began to blare, causing the room to flash red.

Sonic then turned to Knuckles, who looked dumbfounded by what he did.

Sonic motioned his arm towards the open vault as if to say "Get in."

Knuckles nodded and ran into the vault while Sonic waited outside with only the alarm to listen too.

" _If they didn't know you were here before. They certainly know now._ " Dar said.

"Well it's not like we're gonna be here for much longer anyway." Sonic replied.

A few seconds latter, Knuckles came running out, holding a scroll under his arm. "This better be worth all the trouble." He said.

"If Eggman's willing to lock this up in a vault, he had to have seen something that would screw up his plans." Sonic said.

They then began to ran towards the exit.

* * *

Outside, Tails peaked his head around a corner, seeing if there were any creatures or robots ahead of them. Seeing none, he turned to Professor Pickle and Chip and nodded.

They exited the wall they were behind and moved as quickly as possible towards the gate of the wall surrounding the base.

Just as they were about to reach it however, Tails spotted something in front of it.

"Behind here." Tails said, quickly diving behind a group of pots, with the professor and Chip following.

Peeking out from behind, Tails saw that one of the creatures had appeared and was patrolling the front gate.

The professor took a small glance as well. "Oh my, what is that creature?" He asked quietly.

"I don't really know." Tails whispered back. "But these things have been appearing at night since the planet broke apart."

"So he really did it." The professor quietly said looking down.

"Uh, are you okay sir?" Chip asked.

"I'm fine." The professor replied.

Tails looked back at the creature. He had to figure out how to get the creature away from the gate. He knew that he couldn't fight it without risking the professors life, nor could he wait for Sonic and Knuckles to arrive as Eggman had most likely found out they had broken the professor out.

Noticing a rock that was nearby, Tails picked it up and aimed it somewhere far from the gate. He then threw it and landed on a wall that wasn't far from where the creature was, bouncing off it and landing on the ground.

The creature turned to where the noise came from, and went over to investigate.

"Okay now." Tails said quietly and he ran out from behind the pots, with the professor and Chip not far behind him.

They managed to get past the gate before the creature turned back towards the gate and saw them.

Taking a glance behind him to make sure the creature didn't follow them, Tails let out a sigh of relief.

"Come on, The plane shouldn't be far." Tails said as they continued moving.

They eventually reached the plane. Tails helped up the professor in in the back seat, and began to start up the plane for when Sonic and Knuckles came back.

Just then, Chip spotted something. "Hey, what's that up there?"

Tails looked up to where Chip was pointing, seeing a small ship flying low. Looking a bit closer, he saw a familiar logo on it's side.

"That's an Eggman ship." Tails said.

"It looks like they noticed my escape." The professor said as he watched the ship fly to the base.

'Come on Sonic, get out of there.' Tails thought.

* * *

Elsewhere, Sonic and Knuckles ran out of the base.

"We shouldn't be far from the gate." Sonic said.

"Good, then we can head back to Spagonia and figure out how to fix this mess you caused." Knuckles replied.

"Seriously, you still think I caused the planet to break apart?" Sonic asked.

"Let's see, you brought the chaos emeralds with you too space to fight Eggman, fell into an obvious trap while you were in your super form, then Eggman drained them and broke the planet apart. So yeah, I think you're somewhat responsible."

" _He does have a point. You are partially responsible for the state of the planet right now."_  Sonic heard Dar say.

Sonic let out a growl of frustration. "Can we talk about this later? Like when the professor is safe?"

"Look, all I'm saying is that these manuscripts better give us an answer of how to fix the planet." Knuckled said, motioning his free hand to the scroll that were tucked under his arm. "Because I don't know what I'm gonna do if they don't."

Sonic then realized something. "You're worried about Angel Island aren't you?" He asked.

"Of course I'm worried about Angel Island. The Master Emerald's drained of it's energy, and the island is back on the ground."

"Let me guess, all because of me." Sonic said, he could feel his anger beginning to rise.

Knuckled nodded. "And If we don't figure out how to restore the emeralds, Eggman's probably going to capture the island because it's unprotected."

Sonic gave a frustrated sigh and rubbed his head on his temples. "Knuckles, in case you haven't noticed, there are more important things to worry about right now other then your DAMN ISLAND!" He said, shouting at those last words.

Knuckles was about to open his mouth when they heard a series of thumps on the ground coming from the left.

Looking in that direction, they saw that multiple robots had descended from a ship and had cut them off. Hearing another series of thumps behind them, they saw that another group of robots had come.

Knuckled gave a sigh. "Great." he said.

Sonic gave a glare at him that said, "You cannot blame me for this one."

The robots then deployed their shields and began to advance on the two.

Sonic clenched one of his hands into a fist and stretched one of his arms at one of the robots. However, the punch hit the shield and the robot staggered slightly before continuing to advance.

'This isn't good.' Sonic said as he looked around.

"Sonic, what do we do?" Knuckles asked.

" _Leave him, he will never forgive you for breaking the planet."_  Dar said.

'But he has the manuscripts. If I lose them, then I can't put the planet back together.' Sonic thought.

" _I don't see any problem with th_ _at._ "

Sonic let out a frustrated growl, he should have known Dar wouldn't be convinced by that reasoning.

Looking back at the robots, he saw them coming closer to them. His eyes then fell on the wall surrounding the base, and an idea came to mind.

He grabbed Knuckles, who let out a small yelp.

"Sonic, what are you doing?" He asked

Sonic didn't respond as he stretched his free arm at the top of the wall. Grabbing it, his arm then retracted to his normal length, pulling him upwards.

Once his arm was back to it's normal length, he let go, flying over the wall thanks to the momentum.

He then landed on the ground below, rolling as he did so. He then let go of Knuckles, got on all fours, and continued to run. Knuckled followed suit once he recovered.

Eventually, he saw the Tornado in the distance. He could see the professor sitting in the passenger seat behind Tails, with Chip flying next to him. He could also hear the propeller of the plane, meaning that Tails was ready to go.

Taking a look behind him, he saw that a few of the robots had decided to pursue them, and one of them was closing in on Knuckles.

"Knuckles, look out!" He shouted.

Luckily, Knuckles noticed just as one of the robots lunged at him, allowing him to roll out of the way and cause the robot to crash on the ground. He then punched the robot in the head, destroying it.

Sonic meanwhile managed to reach the plane and grabbed onto the handle on the tail end of the plane.

"Tails, get the plane moving now!" He said.

"But what about the manuscripts?" Tails asked.

"Knuckles has them." Sonic answered. "He should catch up soon, just be prepared to take off."

Tails prepared theplane for take off as he began to move. Menawhile, Knuckles had caught up to where the plane and grabbed onto the wing with one hand.

Just as the plane was getting off the ground, one of the robots grabbed onto the tail of the plane. Sonic noticed this and stomped his foot on the robot until it let go and fell to the ground below.

With the plane now fully in the air, Sonic took a sigh of relief.

"You okay professor?" He asked.

"Why yes I am." The professor replied. "I do thank you for rescuing me. Despite your ferocious appearance, you are far too kind."

Sonic looked down. "It's a bit of a long story, but I don't usually look like this."

"I see." The professor said before turning to Knuckles. "Do you have the manuscripts?"

Knuckles nodded and showed them to the professor.

"Excitement. Those documents are our only hope for surviving this crisis."

"We'll head back to Spagonia." Tails said. "I think that you'd be more comfortable in your own office."

"I certainly would. Maybe I can have some tea and some proper cucumber sandwiches."

" _Do you honestly expect this old man to help you fix the planet?_ " Dar asked.

"Maybe not, but he could point us in the right direction" Sonic said.

"What did you say Sonic?" Knuckles asked.

"Nothing." Sonic quickly replied. "Just thinking out loud."

Everyone then spent the rest of the trip in silence.

* * *

Hours latter, they landed back in Spagonia and escorted the professor back to the university. Surprisingly, they didn't encounter any of the creatures on their way there, but remained cautious until they were at.

They were now back in the professors office and were standing around the table as the professor looked at the manuscripts, while Chip was drinking from teacup.

"So what exactly is in these manuscripts that's so important it would make Eggman kidnap you and break the planet?" Knuckles asked.

"These are known as the Gaia manuscripts" The professor said as he looked at them. "They tell the legend of a disaster that befell this planet tens of thousands of years ago."

"A disaster." Tails asked.

The professor nodded. "And according to the manuscripts, this isn't the first time the planet has broken apart."

"What?!" All three said at once.

"You're telling me this has happened before?" Sonic asked, pushing Chip away as he tried to have Sonic get more tea for him.

"And what exactly caused it?" Knuckles asked.

"The cause lies at the very core of the planet." The professor continued. "Everything we've seen is the cause of one creature. The hyper energy organism known as Dark Gaia."

'That's your master, right?' Sonic silently thought to Dar.

" _Correct._ " Dar said.

"So how do we stop it and fix the planet?" Tails asked.

"Luckily, Dark Gaia has yet to be fully reborn. We have Eggman's premature awakening to thank for that. If we act now we can fix the planet and restore the power of the chaos emeralds." The professor explained.

"And how exactly can we do that?" Knuckles asked.

"There are 7 temples that are located around the world, you must travel to each of them to restore the emeralds power and allow the planet to heal naturally."

The professor then looked at the group. "Can you do that?"

"You can count on us professor." Sonic replied. "I might have gotten the planet in this mess, but you can be sure as hell that I'm going to fix it."

"One more thing professor." Tails said. "Do you have somewhere we can stay for the night?"

"Certainly." The professor said. "We have storage basement in the university that you can use. I'll lead you to where it is."

Everyone then left the office, with Sonic grabbing Chip, who was trying to pour tea from the kettle.

* * *

The group walked through the hall, following the professor.

"So, are you now happy that there's a way of fixing the emeralds?" Sonic asked Knuckles as they walked.

Knuckles groaned. "You're just never gonna let me live that down are you?"

"Well you could have just waited until we arrived back at the university to find out, but no, you just had to bring it up while we were still in danger."

"I get it, it was a bad time to bring it up." Knuckles said, frustrated.

"Can you two please cut it out?" Tails asked, annoyed.

The professor finally came to a stop at a door to his left and opened it, showing a pair of steps on the other side of it.

"Here you go." The professor said. "I think I deserve a good rest after everything I've been through."

"Thanks professor." Tails said. "Make sure you stay safe."

"I certainly will." The professor said before he walked away.

The group then walked down the stairs and looked around at what was in the basement.

They saw various boxes that were labeled and stacked around the room, with some of their contents sticking out. They also saw pieces of furniture scattered around, with most of it looking worn from age. In the corner to their left, they saw an old television with a VCR sitting on top of it.

"Do we really have to stay here?" Chip asked, slightly frightened.

"Well we can't expect everywhere we stay to be nice." Sonic replied as he began to drag a couch away from a wall. "Though it's better then being imprisoned by Eggman."

"Plus, we can at least make this room a bit more comfortable too us." Tails added.

Sonic finished dragging the couch to a good position and sat down on it, taking out one of the emeralds as he did so. He looked at it for a bit before letting out a sad sigh.

"What's wrong Sonic?" Tails asked, noticing his sadness as he dug through a box filled with blankets. "We found out a way to can fix the planet, why are you still depressed?"

"I really hoped I would get an answer to fixing my condition." Sonic replied.

He looked at his hand. "You and Knuckles saw what I had to go through when I turned into this in Mazuri, and that was only the second night I had to turn into this. Not only that, but some people see me as some kind of monster and keep their distance at me."

He then clenched it in frustration. "I can't even use my speed when I'm like this."

Tails listened in silence for a bit. It was clear to him his brother despised his monstrous appearance. He could tell he wanted to find a way to get rid of this form, and so far, he was given no answers to his problem.

Getting a blanket out of the box, Tails walked up to him and placed his hand on Sonic. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll find a way to cure you. Maybe by restoring the Chaos Emeralds, we can also fix you." He said, trying to reassure his friend

"I hope so." Sonic replied. "I don't exactly want to spend the rest of my life turning into this."

Tails then handed Sonic a blanket. "Get some rest. We have a big journey ahead of us, and I think it's best if you sleep."

"I'll try." Sonic said.

"Hey Tails, can you help me with moving these boxes out of the way?" Knuckled asked.

"I'll be right over." Tails said as he ran over to Knuckles.

As Tails helped Knuckles, Sonic put the emerald away, pulled the blanket over him and tried his best to go to sleep. Unfortunately, much like the previous night, he found himself unable to sleep.

"Can you please let me sleep?" Sonic quietly asked, suspecting what was causing his insomnia.

" _No._ " Dar replied. " _You must be awake whenever you're like this."_

"But I have to get some sleep." Sonic said. "I don't exactly want to fix the world while tired."

" _I don't see why that's my problem."_

Sonic gave a frustrated sigh. This obviously wasn't going to work as Dar wasn't going to give him a good night's sleep. But he knew he couldn't get by on naps whenever he was on the tornado.

Suddenly, an idea came to mind. "Well, let's say you do take over me, do you really want me tired?" He said.

" _What?"_  Dar asked, slightly confused.

"I mean, I'm still awake because you're supposed make me attack others. Yet, I'm still in control and not doing what I tell you."

" _I don't see the point your making._ "

"I'll put it this way, let's say you do take over me. Because I haven't really gotten any real sleep thanks to you, I'm a bit less effective. I'm a bit more sluggish and slower thanks to my lack of sleep."

He then let out a small chuckle. "Well, slower then I'm already am in this form."

" _FINE."_  Dar growled in frustration. " _You may sleep at night, but only because I want to be effective as possible when I take over._ "

Sonic gave a small smirk. "Glad we can at least reach some kind of agreement."

He then curled up onto the couch and slowly drifted off into sleep.

Tails took a look back at Sonic and saw him sleeping peacefully on the couch. He then saw Chip, who had been digging through the blanket box, flew over to Sonic and came to rest on his head, going to sleep as well.

Tails gave a small smile at that. While his brother might not have an answer to his condition, he could at least sleep peacefully knowing that he can still fix the planet.

However, there was still a question that lingered in his mind.

Who was Sonic talking to?


	10. Planning The Journey.

As the early signs of morning came in Spagonia, Sonic began to stir awake on the couch.

He saw the first rays of sun coming through the small window, and immediately after, he began to transform back into his normal form. He groaned and writhed in pain, causing him to fall off the couch and he brought the blankets with him.

Tails, who had been awakened by Sonic's groans of pain, rushed over to see if his brother was alright. Chip, who had fallen off of Sonic's head when he rolled off the couch, peeked over and watched as Sonic transformed.

After about a few seconds, he emerged from the blankets, back in his normal form.

"You okay Sonic?" Tails asked.

"I'm alright." Sonic replied as he got up. "That wasn't really the worst fall I've had in the past few days."

He looked down at his torn shoes. "Look's like I'm going to need another pair."

"I'll get another pair before we leave." Tails replied. "But I want you to keep that torn pair."

"What?" Sonic exclaimed. "Have you even looked at this pair? They're useless now."

"Not unless you wear them during the night." Tails pointed out. "Plus, it saves us the trouble of buying new shoes for you every morning"

Sonic sighed. "Fine, you have a point. I'll try to change them before I transform."

As Sonic put on his gloves, he heard his stomach rumble.

"Hey Tails, you don't suppose we can have breakfast before we leave, can we?"

Tails thought about it for a moment. "You have a good point. We could use some energy before we go to wherever we need to go."

Sonic smiled. "Sounds good, let's go."

As they walked towards the stairs, Sonic looked back and saw Knuckles on the floor, still sleeping. He also saw that the Gaia Manuscripts were next to him.

He walked over to him and crouched down. "Hey Knux."

Knuckles stirred awake slightly. "What is it Sonic?" he said in a tired voice.

"Me, Tails, and Chip are going up to have some breakfast. Are you coming?"

Knuckles gave a small groan. "Just give me a few more minutes of sleep. I'll join you later."

Sonic sighed. "If you say so. Just don't blame me if you miss it. Though if you do, I'll make sure to grab you something."

Knuckles simply responded by going back to sleep.

Sonic shrugged and rejoined Tails and Chip, the three of them heading off to breakfast.

* * *

In the university cafeteria, Sonic, Tails, and Chip grabbed something to eat and found a place to sit. As they ate their breakfast, Tails noticed that Sonic was a bit more lively compared to when they left Apotos.

"I'll take it you managed to get some sleep last night." Tails said as Sonic took a bite from a waffle.

"You bet I did." Sonic said. "Slept like a baby."

'It did take some convincing though.' He silently added.

" _Don't get used to it._ " He heard Dar say. " _I only let you sleep because it would hinder me if I take over you."_

Sighing at that response, Sonic went back to eating his breakfast.

A few minutes latter, Knuckles arrived at their table, holding a tray of food and a rolled up piece of paper under his shoulder.

"Hey, look who's finally up." Sonic said as Knuckles sat down.

"Well, you're certainly more chipper this morning." Knuckles replied as he sat down. "Almost makes me miss your sleepy self in Apotos."

"Ha ha." Sonic said as he gave Chip some of his waffles.

After a few more minutes, everyone finished eating and put.

"So Knuckles, before me and Tails went up to get breakfast, I sort of noticed you had the Gaia Manuscripts next to you." Sonic said. "Care to explain why?"

Knuckles gave a sigh and put the rolled up paper on the table. "After you went to sleep, I went to the professor and asked if I could borrow the manuscripts to do some further reading on them."

"What did you find out?" Tails asked.

Knuckles brought up the rolled up piece of paper he had to the table and unrolled it. "Found out where 6 of the 7 temples are."

Sonic, Tails, and Chip all looked at the map that Knuckles had laid out to them. On it was a map of the world, with 6 areas marked in various areas of the map.

"From what I can gather, 6 of the temples should be in Spagonia, Mazuri, Holoska, Shamar, Adabat, and Chun-nan." Knuckles explained.

"Wait there's one in Spagonia?" Sonic asked, surprised. "Perfect, lets go there and restore the emerald now."

"Not so fast Sonic. The manuscripts said we need to go to these temples in a certain order. So we can't exactly go to Spagonia yet."

"Oh." Sonic said, disappointed. "So where do we have to go for the first temple?"

"Mazuri." Knuckles answered.

Sonic sighed. "So we could have gone back to the village, found out what was on the manuscripts, and went to find the temple?" He said, slightly annoyed.

"Would you have rather had Eggman's robots chasing both us and the professor while doing all that?" Tails asked.

Sonic thought about it for a moment, before he shrugged. "I see your point."

" _A shame you didn't do that."_  He heard Dar say. " _Maybe one of the robots could've killed the professor, preventing you from learning how to stop my master."_

'Yeah well Knuckles managed to understand the manuscripts.' Sonic silently argued. 'So we probably would've figured it out eventually.'

"So we're going to have to go to Mazuri, then wherever we have to go next and so on." Sonic said to Knuckles.

Knuckles nodded.

"What about those creatures that come out at night?" Chip asked. "What if we have to fight them?"

"If we have to fight them, we'll fight them." Tails said. "I think Sonic's new form might be enough, but it's best if we try to assist him whenever possible."

"Oh right, that's the other thing I wanted to ask." Sonic said snapping his fingers. "Did you find anything of how to cure my transformations?"

Knuckles shook his head. "I'm sorry Sonic, but I couldn't find anything relating to that in the manuscripts."

Sonic let out a frustrated sigh and looked at the ceiling. "Great." He muttered.

Knuckles looked at Sonic for a bit. He could tell that Sonic despised his nightly form. Not just because it took away his speed and forced him to fight in a way that he wasn't used to, but because it was a reminder of his screw up that resulted in the situation the world was in now.

He was still angry at Sonic for what happened to the emeralds, but at the same time, he felt that he didn't deserve what happened to him, and felt bad for blaming him for what happened to the planet.

"Sonic, I understand you want a solution to your werehog problem." He said.

'Among other things.' Sonic thought to himself, thinking of Dar.

"But right now I think restoring the emeralds might be your best chance at curing your condition."

Sonic was silent for a moment, as if he was contemplating this option.

"He may be right Sonic." Chip said. "Maybe if you restore the emeralds, you can get rid of your scary monster form."

Sonic thought about it for a moment and gave a small sigh. "Alright, I'll take my chances with restoring the emeralds." He said. "It's probably the best option I have right now."

"Maybe we'll find another way to fix you, but I think we should focus on restoring the emeralds for now." Tails said.

"Alright." Sonic said. "How soon can he head to Mazuri?"

"Well we can go now." Tails answered. "Given that we've finished eating."

He then looked at Sonic's torn shoes. "And after we get you a new pair of shoes."

After they returned their treys, they walked out of the cafeteria. As they walked thorough the hallways, Sonic looked at Knuckles

"Really, werehog?" He asked.

Knuckles shrugged. "Figured I might as well call it something."

* * *

Hours later, the group were on the Tornado, flying to their destination.

"So where should we start with finding this temple?" Sonic asked.

"Well the village you went to last night is in the area where the temple should be." Knuckles said "I think it's best if we start there."

"That's a good idea." Sonic said. "They might know something about the temple."

As they flew, Chip looked down to see if they were there, but he saw something below.

"Uh guys, I think the village might be a bit busy." He said.

The others looked down and saw what Chip was referring too. Down below, they saw the villagers being confronted by what looked like robots. Sonic also saw a familiar figure menacing the villagers along with the robots.

He let out a sigh. "Should have known." he said.

"Is it Eggman?" Tails asked, despite knowing what the answer was going to be."

Sonic nodded. "I'm gonna go down and talk to him. You go ahead and land the plane."

"Sonic wait..." Tails said, but Sonic had jumped off the plane, with Chip following him down.

"There's just no stopping him sometimes." Knuckles said as he watched Sonic descend.

Tails shook his head. "Let's land the plane and go help him in case he gets into trouble."

* * *

In the village, the villagers backed away as the robots advanced towards them, panicking as they did so. Some of them were even trying to shield the children. All the while, Eggman watched from his craft along with a small white robot with purple eyes.

"What do you want from us?" One of them asked Eggman.

Eggman simply giggled. "Fear not my good villagers." He said. "If you cooperate, I won't do anything nasty to you."

"We won't cooperate with the likes of you." The village elder said, glaring at Eggman.

Eggman leaned from his craft, glaring at the villagers in anger. "Listen here, all I'm asking for is the location of the gaia temple. And I'm getting really impatient."

One of the villagers then picked up a rock. "We're not telling you anything!" he yelled before throwing it at him.

The rock hit Eggman in the head, causing him to to hold his hand too it. The robot in the craft turned towards him before pointing and laughing at him. Once Eggman recovered, he slapped the robot to get it to shut up.

"So, you dare defy me do you?" He growled.

He then pointed at the villagers. "Kill them! We'll just have to find the temple ourselves."

The robots began to advance towards the villagers. They cried out in terror as they tried to protect each other.

Just then however, a blue streak hit one of the robots, causing it to collapse onto the ground. The streak then hit the other robots one by one before flying into the air, revealing it to be Sonic.

He then landed on the ground, with Chip landing next to him shortly after, mimicking fighting poses.

"Yo Eggman." Sonic said. "Thanks for that little skydiving adventure the other day."

"Sonic." Eggman growled. "Should have known you'd survive."

Sonic looked back at the villagers. "So, it's not enough you broke the planet, you have to harass innocent villagers. Was this because I broke the professor out?"

Eggman crossed his arms and looked away from him. "I see no reason to tell you."

"Well that doesn't matter right now, because I have a few questions I'd like to ask you." Sonic said, pointing at him.

Just then, the robot in Eggman's craft reactivated and turned to Eggman. "Doctor, one of the robots have located the Gaia Temple. We should head there now."

Eggman grinned evilly at that. "Excellent Orbot." He said before turning back to Sonic and the villagers. "Look's like I have somewhere else too be, but I'll leave you something to play with."

He then pressed a button and right on cue, a bunch of robots jump forward from both in front and behind Sonic and the villagers.

"Farewell." Eggman said, waving his hand as he flew away.

"Hey, Wait!" Chip cried out as he tried to fly after Eggman. "That's playing dirty!"

Sonic watched Eggman fly away for a moment before turning his attention back towards the robots as they advanced towards him, Chip and the villagers.

He prepared to defend himself, and the people in the village. He wasn't about to abandon them to chase Eggman.

However, just as the robots began to close in on them, they heard something from below the ground. Resulting in one of the robots in front of Sonic looking down.

Suddenly, Knuckles sprung from the ground, uppercutting the robot and knocking it to the ground.

"Wha… Knuckles?" Sonic said, surprised.

"Did you really think I was gonna let you have all the fun?" Knuckles asked.

Looking behind him, he saw that Tails had joined as well. Flying just above the robots and smashing them in the head with a wrench.

"Go after Eggman Sonic." Tails called out. "We'll handle the robots and catch up with you."

Sonic paused for a moment before he nodded and turned towards one of the villagers.

"Do you know which direction the temple is?" He asked.

"Yeah, it should be in that direction." The villager answered, pointing behind Sonic.

Sonic then turned towards Chip. "Come on Chip, let's get Eggman."

Sonic then ran through the gate, blasting through the robots as he did. With Chip flying behind him.

* * *

A couple minutes later, they were running through the savanna towards where the gaia temple is.

"I hope we haven't lost him." Sonic said as he ran. "Because I still need to talk to him about a few things."

Chip looked at him with some concern. "Why are you so determined to catch him?"

"BECAUSE I NEED TO FIND AN ANSWER ON HOW TO FIX MY CONDITION!" Sonic snapped.

Chip reeled back in horror by the sudden outburst. Sonic, seeing Chips startled and horrified reaction, realized he accidentally scared his new friend.

"Sorry, Chip." He said. "I didn't mean to yell at you like that."

He then stared at his hand. "It's just that I've only had what's inside me for a few days, and I already want it gone. The pain I go through whenever I transform is almost too much for me, and I'm afraid people might not trust me when I'm like that."

He then looked down. "Then there's those blackouts thanks to Dar. Every time that happens, I'm afraid that I might someone like my friends."

" _I saved you life with those blackouts._ " He heard Dar say. " _You should be thanking me._ "

"And there's a reason why I haven't told anyone else about Dar yet, or why I try to talk to it when no one else is around. I don't want my friends or anyone else thinking I'm going insane."

He then let out a sigh. "That's why I need to find a way to get rid of this as soon as possible."

Chip looked at him for a few moments. Sonic had shown his distaste for his monster form before, but it was usually through how he acted. This was the first time he had seen him truly express how he felt about it, and he knew that he had to comfort him.

"Don't worry Sonic. I'm sure you'll find a way to fix your condition and get rid of Dar." Chip said, reassuring him. "Maybe that mean Eggman person has some answers for your condition. Even if he doesn't, you can still try to restore the emeralds to get rid of it"

Sonic gave a small smile. "Thanks Chip, I'll keep that in mind."

"Now let's get that Eggman and make sure he doesn't mess with that temple." Chip said.

"Yeah, that's something everyone can agree on." Sonic said, giving a thumbs up.

He then ran again with Chip not far behind. Sonic turned and twisted through the path that led to the temple. He eventually reached an old, ruined stone building with a group of robots in front of the entrance.

'You really think these robots can stop me do you Eggman?' Sonic thought as he closed in on them. 'Sometimes I forget how naive you are.'

Deciding to use his boost technique again, Sonic once again gained a boost of speed and rammed right at the robots, causing them to go flying before he ran through the entrance.

Running up the steps that came after that, he found himself on a balcony. Seeing a few flying robots making a path across to the next balcony, he jumped off it and used his homing attack to destroy the robots while making a path across to the next balcony.

Landing there, he made his way through the door, discovering the floor in the next room was gone. However, that didn't stop him as he ran across a wall to get across.

Managing to get across, he jumped through a window and down towards a large wooden bridge that went upward around a large tree. Following the bridge, he ascended up the tree, destroying any of Eggman's robots that came in his way.

Eventually reaching the top, he found himself on a circular balcony. Stopping, he looked around the balcony before spotting a familiar craft in the distance.

'There you are?' He thought.

He then ran towards Eggman. As he got closer he saw that Eggman was flying next to what looked like a large purple beetle made of metal. It didn't take him long to figure out he made it.

It didn't take him long to eventually catch up with him.

"Hey Eggman!" He cried out when he was right next too him.

Eggman looked next to him, a bit surprised by his prescience. "Gah, how did you get here so fast?"

'Seriously, that's the question you ask?' Sonic thought.

"No matter." Eggman said as he piloted his craft towards the beetle robot. "Your path ends here."

He then descended the craft on an open spot in the beetle as Sonic came to a stop. The moment the craft was attached too it, a dome closed around Eggman.

"Behold, the Egg Beetle! My new power!" He said as he gave the pincers of the robot a good snap shut.

Sonic simply tapped one of shoes and prepared to fight the robot.

"Alright Eggman, bring it on."


	11. The Egg Beetle

Sonic began to run at the Egg Beetle. In response Eggman lifted the machine up and began to fly it backwards away from Sonic.

"Oh ho ho." Eggman said. "Let's see you try and dodge this."

He then pressed a few buttons and missiles began to deploy from the robot, and flew towards Sonic.

Seeing them approach him, Sonic began to weave side to side, trying to avoid the missiles as they landed.

Sonic ran through the dust and smoke produced by the missiles, using his boost technique to get closer to Eggman's robot.

Just as he managed to get close to the robot, the pincers of the robot opened up, fully prepared to close once Sonic was close enough.

Sonic kept pace with the robot, waiting until the right moment to jump.

Just as the pincers were about to slam shut, Sonic jumped and landed on them.

'Got you now.' Sonic thought, giving a small smirk.

He then began to attack the spot where Eggman was, managing to get a few hits.

Eventually however, Eggman pulled the robot back away from Sonic, causing Sonic to stumble a bit, but he managed too regain balance and continue pursuing Eggman.

However, Eggman then flew to Sonic's left, causing it to hover outside of the balcony.

"Hmm, looks like you survived that." Eggman said. "Why don't we try this?"

He then pressed a few more buttons, causing more missiles to launch, as well as mines that landed in front of Sonic.

" _Try not to get killed by those things._ " Dar said.  _"It would be really unpleasant to me if you died."_

"Oh, really! Thanks for the tip, I was just gonna hit every single one of them." Sonic said sarcastically as he avoided them.

The barrage eventually ended and Eggman flew the robot towards where Sonic was, the pincers opening up once again to try and snap shut when it was close enough to him.

Just as the pincers were about ready to close, Sonic prepared to jump once again.

However, just as the pincers looked like they were about to close and Sonic jumped, the pincers stopped just before they closed and quickly opened up again.

"Oh shit." Sonic said, realizing what's going to happen.

He quickly dived forward just as the pincers quickly closed again, narrowly avoiding getting squashed by them, and finding himself facing Eggman in his cockpit again.

Seeing an opportunity, he resumed attacking where Eggman was. Like before though, Eggman flew away from Sonic, back onto the balcony. Though it was clear that the robot wasn't going to last much longer.

"That's it!" Eggman yelled out as he slammed on buttons. "I'm throwing everything I have at you!"

At that moment, the robot began to launch missiles, and drop mines at a rapid rate. Not only that, but as Sonic dodged the barrage, he saw that the pincers were rapidly opening and closing, preventing him from getting close.

'Look's like he's widened up to my tactics.' Sonic thought as he jumped over a mine. 'Gotta find another way to attack it.'

He dodged a missile that landed next to him before jumping over a mine that was in front of him. As he did so, he looked at the missiles and an idea came to mind.

He then began to run, waiting until one of the missiles came near him. Once it was near him, he sidestepped it and grabbed it in midair.

Figuring he should grab another just in case, he slid under a missile before grabbing another missile that was next to him.

He then leaped over a mine that was in front of him, and in midair, he prepared to throw the missiles.

"Hey Eggman, I'd like to return something to your robot!" He said.

He then threw the missiles at the Egg Beetle, and they landed on the robot, exploding and causing the robot to spin out of control.

"Grr come on, work you stupid machine." Eggman said as he tried to regain control of the robot.

"Sir, I'm afraid the robot is too damaged to pilot." Orbot said.

"Shut up, I can get control of it."

Suddenly, sparks shot from the control panel, causing Eggman to shield his eyes, as well as the robot to tumble to the ground.

Sonic came to a stop and looked at the ruins of the robot, with Chip flying right up to him.

"Wow, that Eggman guy gave you a tough time." Chip said as he looked at the wreckage of the robot.

"Eh, I'd say it was tougher then usual." Sonic said as he crossed his arms.

He began to ran towards the robot ruins to question Eggman when suddenly, his craft raised from the wreckage of the Egg Beetle, the doctor glaring at the hedgehog and flying creature as it did so.

"This isn't over." He said.

He then flew away from the two.

"HEY! Come back!" Sonic yelled as he tried to pursue them.

It was no use however, Eggman was too far away to catch.

"Dammit." Sonic said, stomping his foot on the ground.

" _Oh what a shame._ " Dar said in a mocking tone. " _It looks like you're stuck with my for a while longer._ "

Sonic clenched his fist. "Shut up." he said through gritted teeth.

"Sonic, are you okay?" Chip asked, slightly concerned.

Sonic took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before replying. "Yeah, I'm okay. It's not like that was my only opportunity to ask Eggman what he did to me."

The two then turned towards the inner circle of the balcony and walked over to the edge. Looking down they saw a stone temple at the center of the area below.

"You think that's a Gaia Temple?" Chip asked.

"Well if this wasn't, Eggman wouldn't have harassed those villagers and traveled all the way here." Sonic replied.

He then rummaged through his sock for the communication device. "I think we better call Tails. It's best to let him know we're at the temple."

He got it out and pressed the button to call Tails. After about a few second Tails answered.

"Sonic, you there?"

"Yeah, Chip and I are at the temple. Where are you and Knuckles?" Sonic asked.

"We're heading to where you are now. We've dealt with the robots and the villagers are safe."

Sonic smiled. "That's good."

He looked back at the temple. "Me and Chip are going to investigate the temple, see what's inside."

"Okay, we'll see you soon."

Tails then hung up.

After putting the communicator away, he turned to Chip. "What do you say we explore this temple?"

"Yeah, that sounds like a great idea!" Chip said cheerfully.

The two then leaped down from the balcony and headed towards the temple.

* * *

Inside, they found themselves in a room that was illuminated with green light. To both their left and right were columns that held up green crystals. At the end of the pathway they were on was an altar that held a pedestal at the center of it.

"Whoa." Chip said in awe as they walked and looked around at the temple.

"Yeah, I agree with you Chip." Sonic replied. "This place looks amazing."

He turned towards one of the columns with one of the crystals and looked at it. "You don't suppose these things are helping light this temple do you?"

Chip wasn't listening however, but instead flying over to the pedestal to check on it. Looking at it, he saw a hole in the middle of the pedestal. Curious, he looked through it.

"Hey Sonic, what do you think is this hole?" He asked.

Sonic turned and saw Chip looking at the pedestal.

"Uh Chip, maybe we should wait for Tails and Knuckles before messing with anything here." He said.

He was about to walk over to Chip when the gem on Chip's necklace began to glow and the temple started to shake.

"Whoa!" Sonic said in surprise as he tried to maintain balance.

"Oh no! What did I do?" Chip asked in a panic.

" _Nice going, now he's going to get us all killed."_ Dar said.

A smaller pedestal emerged from the main one and the rumbling abruptly stopped.

Sonic walked over to the pedestal and looked at it with Chip.

"How did you do that Chip?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. I was simply looking at it, but then the gem on my neck glowed and suddenly this came out."

Sonic looked back at the pedestal, noticing a small indent in the middle that looked like it could hold something.

Getting out one of the emeralds and comparing it to the indent. He saw that the bottom of the emerald was similar to the indent on the pedestal. He then took a look at the color of the lights in the temple.

'Well, here goes nothing.' Sonic thought to himself, figuring out what to do.

He placed the emerald on the pedestal. After about a second, the emerald began to glow and hover in the air. There was then a flash of light, causing Sonic and Chip to shield their eyes for a moment.

When they looked at the emerald again, they saw that it was no longer a dull gray, but now a green that Sonic recognized was the usual color of the emerald.

"Yay, the emerald has been restored." Chip cheered.

At that moment, the temple began to shake again.

"Aaahh, what now?" Chip asked as he looked around in terror. "Is the temple collapsing?"

" _On second thought, it turns out your naive thinking will get us killed."_ Dar said angrily.

Sonic ignored Dar's comment and instead, grabbed onto the pedestal to prevent himself from falling over.

* * *

Outside the temple, Tails and Knuckles finally arrived.

"Well, there's the temple." Tails said looking at it. "Sonic and Chip are probably waiting for us in there."

Just as they were about to head down, they saw a green beam of light shoot out from the temple and into the sky.

"Whoa, what is that?" Knuckles asked as they stared at the beam of light.

As soon as Knuckles finished asking that, they felt an earthquake happen, causing them to lose balance temporarily. After awhile, the quake stopped, and the light from the temple faded.

"What just happened?" Knuckles asked. "Did the piece of the planet break apart this time?"

Tails checked the miles electric to see what happened. When he saw the results, he smiled.

"I think I know what happened." He said.

He then turned to Knuckles. "Come on, let's go meet with Sonic and Chip."

The two then ran into the temple.

* * *

Inside the temple, Sonic and Chip recovered from the temple shaking.

"Hey, the temple's still standing." Chip said looking around, and seeing the temple still intact.

"But what happened?" Sonic asked.

"Sonic! I've got good news!"

Sonic and Chip turned around and saw Tails flying towards them, with Knuckles not far behind.

"What is it Tails?" Sonic asked running over to them.

Tails brought up the Miles Electric to him. On the screen was simulated image of the broken earth, with the pieces surrounding the mantle. Watching it, he saw a piece of it going back towards the mantle.

"It looks like by restoring the emerald at this temple, it's restored this piece of the planet in this rightful place."

Sonic gave a smile. "Sweet." He said.

He looked at Chip, who was equally happy with the news. The two then gave a high five at each other.

Tails put the Miles Electric away. "At this rate, you'll gave the whole world back together in no time."

Sonic crossed his arms and thought about it. "A planet sized jigsaw puzzle eh." He said. "Sounds like a great excuse to travel the world."

"Come on." Tails said. "Let's head back to the village."

As they walked out of the temple, Knuckles took a look back at the emerald that was still hovering on the pedestal.

"What's wrong Knuckles?" Sonic asked, noticing Knuckles looking back. "Bummed out that you can't take the emerald?"

"Yes." Knuckles replied. "I want to take it, but the manuscripts say we need to keep them in the temple until the planet is restored."

"Aw cheer up" Sonic said putting his arm over his shoulder. "You can just go back and get them once the whole thing's over."

"My I remind you the reason I'm going to have to do that because you fell into a trap by Eggman and he drained the emeralds."

"Oh just try to look at the positives, you get to travel the world with us. Doesn't that sound more fun then sitting on an island all day?"

Knuckles simply looked at Sonic for a few seconds before he signed. "I guess that sounds a bit better."

Knuckles then walked away from Sonic.

'You got anything to say about this?' Sonic silently asked Dar.

" _Congratulations, you managed to restore a piece._ " Dar said sarcastically. " _But it still won't be enough to stop my master."_

'We still have six more temples to get to, so we'll see about that.' Sonic thought back.

" _Oh, and how are you going to deal with me?"_

'I'm not sure yet, but one way or another, I'll find a way to get rid of you.'


End file.
